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SCHOOL GOVERNMENT: 

A PRACTICAL TREATISE, 



PRESENTING A THOROUGH DISCUSSION OF ITS FACTS, 
PRINCIPLES, AND THEIR APPLICATIONS; 



WITH 



OEITIQUES 



UPON CUKPwENT THEORIES OF PUNISHMENT, AND 
SCHEMES OF ADMINISTRATION. 



FOR THE 

USE OF NORMAL SCHOOLS, PRACTICAL TEACHERS, AND PARENTS. 
By FREDERICK Si^ JEWELL, A.M. 



The government of the child should be kingly.— Akistotlk. 



I^EWYORK: 
PUBLISHED BY A. S. BARNES & CO., 

Ill & 113 WILLIAM ST., COR. JOHN. 






^ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 
FEEDERICK S. JEWELL, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



Stereotyped by Smith <fe McDougal, 82 & 84 Beekman St., N. T. 
Printed by Gborgk W. "Wood, 2 Dutch Street. 




PREFACE 



The work here presented to the public was under- 
taken under the deep conviction that a thorough and 
practical examination of the field of thought involved, 
was pressingly demanded by the wants of teachers and 
the interests of our pubhc schools. 

It haSj therefore, been expressly prepared with a view 
to meet that particular demand, and, hence, has taken 
upon itself some features which otherwise the writer 
would have chosen to avoid, as unfavorable to logical 
exactness in order and execution. 

Thus, knowing the difficulties in the way of mastering 
an extended discussion, likely to be encountered by the 
great body of public school teachers, and growing in- 
evitably out of the close employment of their time, the 
wide diversion of their attention, the exhausting nature 
of their duties, and their lack of philosophical familiarity 
with the topics suggested, the following general method 
has been adopted as both just and necessary. 

The introductory topics have been considered more in 
detail than might otherwise have been proper ; a com- 
paratively discursive method in discussion has been, 
though somewhat reluctantly, adopted ; objections have 
been particularly considered, and, as naturally suggested, 
instead of being left to the necessary inferences of indi- 
vidaal reflection ; at the risk of some criticism, princi- 



IV PREFACE. 

pies have been repeated, in different connections, that 
their relations may always be immediately apparent, and 
that their nature may be more clearly apprehended in 
the hght of the relations thus evinced ; and studied ex- 
cellence in style has been steadily made to give place to 
a diction chiefly intent on simplicity, earnestness, and 
force. 

It is hoped that the practical advantages sought to be 
secured for the less favored class of readers, by the pur- 
suit of this method, will so far approve it to the good 
sense of those endowed with higher learning and leisui-e, 
as rather to add to their interest in the work, instead of 
detracting from it. Let us sow, that the many may reap 
rather than the few. 

Prosecuted under the pressui'e of peculiar perplexities, 
and discussing a subject of peculiar difficulties, it is not 
for one moment fancied that the work is without its de- 
fects. Doubtless, here and there, the individual teacher 
will look for a minute elucidation of some specific diffi- 
culty, — some question of casuistry, case of discipline, or 
particular method, — with reference to which his own 
mind has been exercised, but which has not here been 
fully discussed. It would not be strange if the cottager 
should look in vain in the artist's best transfiguration in 
color of the overshadowing Alp, for the distinct delinea- 
tion of the particular cleft or crag which, as hovering 
around, or hanging over his own dwelling place, seems 
to him the object of especial mark. 

It will, however, occur to such teachers, upon proper 
reflection, that it must be impossible within the brief 
practical comjDass to w^hich this work has, for obvious 
reasons, been restricted, to discuss in detail an entire 



PEEFACE. V 

field so mazy and manifold in its particulars, as must be 
that of school government. The only consistent effort 
must be that of establishing broad principles, and indi- 
cating clear lines of inference and application, leaving 
still something to be done by the teacher in his own 
thought and experiment. 

It is proper to remark here, that while the work has 
been, as treating of School Government, more especially 
prepared for the teacher, it is one which cannot but be 
highly suggestive and helpful to the parent. The atten- 
tion of the latter class is earnestly called, therefore, to 
its claims upon their interest and examination. 

Such as the work is, it is now offered to the public, in 
the behef that it is calculated to render important service 
to those for whose benefit, and in sympathy with whose 
labors, perplexities, and trials, it has been written. 

State NoKsrAL School, Albany, Febeuaey 22, 1866. 



OOI^TEIN'TS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAOB 

Introduction 9 



CHAPTER II. 

Obstacles in the way of Good School Government Speci- 
fically Considered 24 



CHAPTER III. 

Derivation of School Government from Parental Authority. 34 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Characteristics of School Government as Derived 
FROM that of the Parent 43 



CHAPTER Y. 

School Government as Related to the School, and its Con- 
sequent Characteristics 68 



CHAPTER YI. 

General Elements of School Government in Itself Consid- 
ered 101 



\1U CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

PAGE 

General Elements Continued. — Discipline. — Requirement... 129 

CHAPTER VIII. 

General Elements Continued.— Discipline. — Judgment 141 



CHAPTER IX. 

General Elements Continued. — Discipline. — Correction or 
Enforcement, Preventive 168 

CHAPTER X. 

General Elements Continued. — Discipline. — Penal Correc- 
tion. — Theories of Puniselment 189 



CHAPTER XI. 

General Elements Continued. — Discipline. — Penal Correc- 
tion, OR Punishment 218 



CHAPTER XII. 

Application of Principles to Specific Schemes of Discipline 
and to Departmental Schools 253 



CHAPTER XIII. 

School Government. — General Resume of its Species; their 
Characteristics, and the Qualifications Requisite to their 
Administration 282 



SCHOOL GOYEEMENT. 



CHAPTEE I. 
introi3XJCtio:n-. 

General definition of School Government — Importance gcnerallj'^ granted 
— Results of its absence — Keal necessity of government — General 
maxim — Improvement to have been expected — Expectation not real- 
ized — Proofs of depression and tieglect of government — Rude forms of 
punishment — Teaching exclusively taught — Learning made the test of 
qualification in teachers — Should be examined in government — Em- 
ployment of young teachers — High culture and experience needed for 
governing — Teachers absorbed in the work of instruction — Causes of 
this iieglect and depi'ession of School Government — Incidental obstacles in 
the way of governing — False theory of education — Theory diverts 
attention from government — The moral element suppressed— ^?;iVZewces 
of the fallacy of the theory — Experience shows it — Shown from the 
laws of the intellect — Injurious results of overlooking these laws — 
Shown from the order of the human faculties — Causes of this neglect 
of the moral nature — Learning more easily appreciated than moral cul- 
ture — Prejudices against moral instruction in schools — Disparting of 
the intellectual and moral nature in science — Ignoring of the religious 
element in the soul — Absurdity of this neglect of the moral nature — 
School Government more closely defined — Definition condensed. 

School Goyernment, as tliat branch of practical 
art to wliich the attention is to be given throughout 
this work, may be defined in general terms, as that 
just ordering of the affairs of the school, v/hich is 
necessary to the successful attainment of its proper 
ends. Of its general importance in some reasonable 



10 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

and effective form, we apprehend few persons of in- 
telligence or experience entertain any doubt. Even 
those, who are most disposed to take exceptions to its 
specific applications as pressing upon their children 
or wards, are quite ready to cry out against its 
marked absence from the school. Indeed, it needs 
no great sharpness of observation to reveal to any 
one, disposed to know the truth, the fact that the lack 
of it can only be productive of serious evils, such as 
the failure of the pupils to make satisfactory pro- 
gress, the destruction of the teacher's influence, and 
the prevalence of disorder and iU feehng throughout 
the school. Accepting, then, even the current notion 
as to the nature of education and the functions of 
the school, iU calculated as that notion is to favor or 
secure right views of the importance of school gov- 
ernment, it will be seen that that government is more 
than merely important to the succcessful completion 
of the daily round of instruction, and to the main- 
tenance of general harmony throughout the little 
commonwealth ; it is a thorough necessity. Indeed, 
in the school, as elsewhere, the general maxim is, 
" Order is heaven's first law ;" to which may not in- 
consistently be added this other, " government is the 
soul of order." 

From the general fact of its evident importance, it 
would naturally be supposed that government in the 
schools would be marked by a high order of excel- 
lence. Whatever might have formerly been its char- 
acter, with our other advances in educational matters, 
improvement in school government was, as a matter 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

of course, to be counted upon. As the old and some- 
what nebulous luminaries, Murray and Morse, Pike 
and Daboll, descending through a right parabolic 
curve, sank at length " slowly and all reluctantly," 
below the horizon ; as other and better lights began 
to brighten in the East, and men were seen casting 
about for better teachers and more enlightened 
methods of instruction, it was to be expected that 
the system of control and discipline existing in the 
schools, would come up for a corresponding interest 
and attention. 

This expectation cannot, however, be said to have 
been reahzed. True, school government may not be 
found remaining in the exact chaos which prevailed 
in that earlier period, when the school entire was 
" without form and void, and darkness was upon the 
face of the deep." Yet it is quite certain that this 
important part of the scholastic creation has not 
kej)t pace with other things. It has not T\dth equal 
interest and endeavor been evoked from the waste 
and darkness, and been reduced to true consistency 
and order. It has been rather neglected and left to 
its o^TQ chance of uncared-for growth and develop- 
ment. Hence, it still remains in a sadly depressed 
condition. 

Of this neglected and depressed condition, there are 
various indications which deserve to be noticed on 
account of their practical bearing upon its correction. 
As the first, we notice the fact that the tide of pro- 
gress has not yet swept away the older, ruder, and 
simply violent forms of government, which, while not 



12 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

altogether false in principle, were jet most rude and 
base in their application. The pitiless rod, the 
glancing ferule, the burdensome billet of wood, the 
stooping posture, and others of the banging and bad- 
gering de\dces of the former age, while passed some- 
what into decrepitude and disesteem, are, neither in 
their more flagitious instances extinct, nor in their 
really legitimate instrumentahties, reformed and 
Christianized. 

Again, even where these evil forms of government 
have gone into disuse, where better methods of in- 
struction have sprung up, and where, consequently, 
especial means are employed for the training of 
teachers, it is quite commonly the case that the ab- 
sorbing topic is teaching. We see no good reason 
why an educational school should not give the subject 
Oi government an important place in its curriculum; 
no reason why it should not as distinctly have a pro- 
fessor of the " Theory and Practice of Governing," as 
Vv^ell as of the " Theory and Practice of Teaching ;" at 
least, no good reason why the two should not be dis- 
tinctly and equitably conjoined in one department, 
the " Department of School Government and Instruc- 
tion." And yet, so far as we know, such an organ- 
ization is not to be found in our normal schools, 
either in form or substance. In quite the larger por- 
tion, school government is taught inferentially, and 
even that as an incidental matter. 

In the third place, were there nothing else to show 
that the proper government of the school eUcits httle 
if any attention on the part of the pubhc, the fact 



INTKODUCTION. 13 

that teachers are commonly examined and approved 
upon the basis of mere scholarshij), might suffice. 
That which, in so important a preliminary as the test- 
ing of the teacher's qualifications, is hardly inquired 
after, must hold no very high place in the public esti- 
mation. Certainly, if school government were looked 
upon as of the first moment, we should find school 
officers suspending their wise explorations in the 
dii'ection of geography, grammar, and arithmetic, in 
order to ascertain whether the prospective teachers 
are possessed of correct and adequate views of the 
nature and importance of school government. After 
they have been learnedly led through the mazy toils 
of describing the method of finding the least common 
denominator ; of designating the barbarous boun- 
daries of sundry ill-begotten chiefdoms in Asia ; and 
of unfolding Brown's singularly philosophical and 
exhaustive mode of parsing " tweedledum and twee- 
dledee," would it not be the next most natural thing 
to submit for their solution questions like the fol- 
lowing : "What are the ends to be sought in school 
government? By what means are those ends to be 
secured ? What are the respective relations of force, 
authority, and influence, in the government of the 
young ? What facts should be taken into account in 
the administering of discipline? How is the cor- 
rectness of a penalty to be determined? What course 
should be pursued with extreme or seemingly 
incorrigible offenders?" But no such questions 
are asked ; and the conclusion already suggested is 
inevitable. 



14 SCHOOL GOVERNAIENT. 

Anotlier proof of the neglected and depressed con- 
dition of school government is, we think, afforded by 
the fact that young and inexperienced teachers find 
so ready and so general employment. The wise and 
effective government of the school is really a delicate 
and difficult work. For, consider how few are the 
accessible guides to the successful accomplishment of 
that work ; how subtle and often profound are the 
principles embraced in its philosophy ; how varied 
and perplexing must be its practical adjustment ; 
how manifold the difficulties to be encountered ; and 
how sad may be the results of failure to govern 
wisely and well. 

Is this, then, a work proper to be undertaken by 
any other than a person of broad culture, of thorough 
self-discipline, of established character, and of ma- 
ture experience ? Can any other than such a teacher 
expect to succeed in it ? What then must be the 
effect of entrusting it so commonly to young and in- 
experienced teachers,; of entrusting it to those who, 
to the very possible, as very common want of native 
fitness, superadd the lack of any acquired fitness for 
the work of governing ? This is the evil of which old 
Thomas Fuller complains, when he charges it as one 
of the causes of the defective performance of the 
duties of the schoolmaster, that " young scholars 
make this calling their refuge ; yea, perchance, before 
they have taken any degree in the university, com- 
mence schoolmasters in the country, as if nothing 
else were required to set up in the profession but 
only a rod and a ferule." In such hands, what ex- 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

cellence can school gOYernment hope to attain ; how 
can it, in fact, escape being well nigh destroyed? 
"WTij then place it in such hands ? There can be but 
one answer to the question. It is because the im- 
portance of the goYemment is not realized ; the pub- 
lic concern themselYOS httle about its fortunes ; and, 
hence, the practical conclusion is, it may be entrusted 
to almost anybody. 

As a final indication of this neglected condition, 
we notice the almost uniYersal absorption of the 
teacher's ambition and the public interest, in the 
work of instruction. Few thoughtful educators can 
haYe failed to obserYe the fact that in our schools 
the matter of gOYernment has not merely dropped 
into a subordinate place ; it has sunk almost out of 
sight. How Yery infrequent are the indications that 
the teacher has made the control of his school, and 
the wholesome discipline of the pupil, the subjects of 
careful study and systematic preparation? Where 
are the pupils found possessed with the idea that one 
of the first objects of their ambition should be to 
deYelop into noble subjects of the school gOYernment ? 
Where do you find patrons or parents, upon the oc- 
currence of school examinations, eYincing a hYely 
interest in the moral, as well as the intellectual pro- 
gress of the child ? On all hands, the interest taken 
is altogether in the results of the instruction ; the 
pride eYinced is altogether in the amount of know- 
ledge that the child has gained, and his readiness 
and brilliance in exhibiting it. The gOYernment 
of the school, which should haYe made the child 



16 SCHOOL GOVEBNMENT. 

patient, persistent, high-principled, obedient, noble, — 
that is held as purely incidental and unimportant ; 
it is " out of mind as soon as out of sight." 

"We pass now to notice some of the causes of this 
depressed and neglected condition of school govern- 
ment. And this must be done somewhat carefuUy, 
since, upon the conclusions reached, must depend the 
proper elucidation of points subsequently involved in 
the discussion. Of these causes, the first to which 
the attention may be directed are incidental in their 
character and influence. 

Under tliis head, we summarily include all those 
accidents of our school systems and school opera- 
tions, which throw obstacles, either mechanical or 
moral, in the way of the institution or maintaining of 
true and effective government. 

Those defects, therefore, in the accommodations of 
the school; those errors in its organization; that 
ignorance or neglect of school officers ; that antago- 
nistic influence of parental government ; and that in- 
bred insubordination and lawlessness of human nature, 
wliich counteract or oppose the teacher in liis efforts 
to institute, perfect and maintain good government in 
the school ; — all these tend to defeat his efforts and, 
by making school government a failure, depress 
it, and cause it to be neglected. The principle ap- 
phed here is a plain one. Man everywhere rever- 
ences success. Success is always an end ; often an 
idolatry. Hence, the common tendency to treat 
whoever or whatever is attended with, failure, as 
worthy of little attention or regard. Whatever 



INTltODUCTION. 17 

then, by intorposing obstacles in its way, goes to 
make tlie government of the youth in our schrools 
either a partial success only, or, what is more often 
the case, a practical failure, tends to bring it into 
contempt. 

Passing from these incidental and minor causes, 
we find back of them all, another altogether more 
profound and influential. 

We refer here to what we shall endeavor to show to 
be a thoroughly false theory of education. The mis- 
taken views wliich have long prevailed with regard to 
the nature and object of education, are not wholly un- 
kno-^Ti to our more sound and earnest educators. To 
such, no fallacy can be more apparent than that in- 
volved in the common notion that education is sim- 
ply the development of the intellect, through the ac- 
quisition of knowledge. Its evil results are spread 
broad-cast over the whole field of public instruction, 
and the so-called development effected in the schools. 
Its direct influence, which, however, seems not so 
distinctly to have attracted notice, has been to create 
that diversion of the attention from the subject of 
school government, akeady mentioned. 

This unfortunate result it has effected, not merely 
by elevating intellectual development too exclusively, 
but by altogether ignoring moral culture. Discharge 
education of the moral element or simply reduce it 
to a secondary position, and where have you any 
place for school government ? What can it be other 
than a mere horse-boy to the work of instruction, — • 
that is, a mere means of holding the will in obedient 



18 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

waiting upon the intellect in the prosecution of its 
exclusive demand upon the opportunities and appli- 
ances of the school ? Not for one moment, we in- 
sist — not for one moment — can school government 
take its true place in that system of education in 
which the moral nature does not stand side by side 
in privilege, with the intellectual powers ; in which 
the disciphne of the susceptibilities and the will is 
not held equal, (we had almost said paramount) to 
the development of the sense, the understanding, and 
the reason. 

That the theory which thus, to the discredit and 
damage of the school government, dissevers the moral 
discipline fi-om the intellectual instruction, and indeed 
almost ignores it, — that this theory is a false one, will 
be quite evident without extended discussion. The 
practical workings of instruction in the schools show 
most clearly that the development of the intellect 
cannot proceed successfully except under the aus- 
pices of that thorough order which the proper dis- 
cipline and control of the susceptibihties and the will 
can alone secure. In other words, the pupil will 
make progress in learning, only as the school is 
efficiently governed. This is the testimony of ex- 
perience. 

Besides this, the necessary laws of mental growth 
and progress are in proof. The development of the 
intellect must be the product of its self-activity. 
Such self-activity must owe both its inception and 
continuance to the susceptibilities and the will. 
What the pupil is led to desire, he purposes ; and 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

what lie purposes underlies and determines tlie na- 
ture and extent of his intellectual application. Quite 
clearly then, that appHcation and the consequent intel- 
lectual progress can attain the highest character and 
the most successful results, only as, under proper con- 
trol and discipline, the combined desires and purposes 
are brought into a cheerful, steady, and growing ac- 
cordance with the highest want of the intellect. 

It is the very common overlooking of this impor- 
tant principle, which occasions so much waste of time 
and labor in our schools, so much unsuccessful study 
on the part of the pupil, and so general a prevalence 
of a crude or one-sided culture and development 
among those who have ostensibly been educated. 

Higher than this, is the proof found in the relative 
order and end of the faculties. . The end of all rational 
activity is, internally, the attainment of the highest 
dignity or worthiness ; externally, the highest bene- 
volence. Hence, as the sense is for, and only for the 
intellect ; so the intellect is for, and only for the sus- 
ceptibilities and the wiU. Clearer perception is no 
end in itself ; it is only a means to higher knowledge. 
Higher knowledge is no end in itself; it is only a 
means to the attainment of purer and more intelH- 
gent desires and loftier purposes. Develop, then, the 
intellect as completely as you will without mak- 
ing that development conduce to a corresponding 
discipline of the heart, and the product is either haK 
abortive or fairly monstrous ; it is either a crude 
Hercules or a dread Lucifer. Hence, whatever 
theory of education inverts this order, and subordi- 



20 SCHOOL GOVEEKMENT. 

nates the moral to tlie intellectual, is clearly and in- 
trinsically false. 

It is important here that we give some attention to 
the causes of this failure to do justice to the moral 
nature in our school training. We shall briefly no- 
tice three. 

First, then, it is to be remarked that the economic 
Yalue of the mere intellectual training makes itself 
more directly apparent to the vulgar mind. The 
advantages resulting from the boy's proficiency in 
*' reading, '^M.iting, and ciphering," all can appreciate. 
How those acquisitions work into the business pur- 
suits of hfe, and how they bear upon success in those 
pursuits, they know. But not so readily do men, — of 
whom the mass have no higher conceptions of the 
objects of life than the getting of a living or the 
making of money, — ^not so readily do they discover 
the value of true principles and a just self-control as 
parts of the boy's attainments and character. The 
bearing of these upon the price (so to speak) which 
he will briag in the market-place of men, or upon 
the success of his Hfe-career, they cannot well esti- 
mate. We can hardly expect them to do it. 

Agaia, a strange, an unwarrantable (we had almost 
said cowardly) prejudice against what has been 
called moral instruction in schools, has quite gen- 
erally prevailed, and has, doubtless, in some part 
produced the evil to which we allude. How many, 
affected by that, for a free and brave people, pitiable 
fear of " sectarianism" and " priestcraft," have stood 
ready, not only to decry any attem^^t to introduce 



INTEODUCTION. 21 

moral instruction into tlie schools, but to sacrifice 
outright the child's intellectual training, rather than 
to have proper pains taken to instill into his mind 
those moral and religious principles which are the 
croT\Ti of all learning, and to develop in his heart 
that manly and virtuous strength which is essential 
to a just education and a true well-being, — without 
which, indeed, not even that proper government, so 
necessary to the favorable prosecution of the intel- 
lectual training, can be secured! And yet, this is 
tantamount to entertaining so great a fear of some 
Pharisaical or fanatical cleansing of the cup and 
platter, that it is preferred that they should remain 
intact in their original or accumulated vileness, so as 
to be neither endurable to the touch nor capable of 
containing anything pure or pleasant. 

A third cause, perhaps less direct, but not less 
mischievous, may be found in the fact that almost 
all the current philosophies have studiously dissev- 
ered the consideration of the moral nature, from the 
study of mind, than which nothing can be more 
unphilosophical. It were bad enough to compound 
ethics with the philosophy of the moral powers ; but 
to dissever the latter fi*om the intellectual faculties, 
in the study of ijiental science, is an outrap;e upon 
the truth of the human soul. Were it possible to suc- 
ceed in such an attempt to 

" Distingidsli and divide 
A liair 'twixt south and southwest side," 

the only effect would be, as we have akeady seen, to 



22 SCHOOL GO^TiENMENT. 

restrict or distort tlie views entertained of tlie intel- 
lectual nature, and to cast discredit upon the moral 
nature as neither essential to the former, nor of 
dominant importance in the soul. 

Even in those treatises devoted ostensibly to the 
study of the moral powers^ there has been a too 
common avoidance of all distinct reference to the 
spmtual or rehgious element in the soul, into which 
the moral element must ultimately be drawn up and 
absorbed, unless it is doomed, as if invested with the 
curse of the serpent, to go prone upon the dust in 
actual abandonment and degradation. The natural 
effect of this course must be, as may be clearly seen, 
to cast discredit upon that moral training which 
should form a recognized and revered constituent of 
all true education, and the essential basis, if not the 
complete substance, of all true school government. 

But whatever may be the causes of this failure to 
do justice to the moral nature of the child, and to 
provide for his moral instruction, the failure is in the 
highest degree absurd and pernicious. What is 
your education, with aU its intellectual completeness, 
if it does not secure that the child shall become the 
true man, the pure friend, the worthy parent, the 
noble citizen, to say nothing of the exemplary Chris- 
tian? These are reaUy what the self-conscious 
spirit, the dearer associates, the rising generation, 
the community, the organized state, seek. Without 
these, " the rest is leather and pruneUa." And yet, 
these higher qualities are to be secured only through 
the thorough disciplining of the moral nature imder 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

the wise control and tlie just sanctions of a proper 
government in the schools ; not, however, as a sub- 
stitute for, but as cooperative with, the government 
of the family. The latter is prior, and should be 
superior, instead of being, as is too commonly the 
case, both inferior and adverse. 

From all this, it will be seen that school govern- 
ment is not only the proper controlling of the school, 
so as to make it practicable to secure the ends of 
true iQstruction, as looking toward the development 
of the intellect ; but it is also, and in a higher sense, 
the effective discipHning of the school, so as to bring 
the appetites, desires, and passions of each individual 
under rational and virtuous control, so that they 
shall be as perfectly subject to the rigJit, as, by in- 
struction, the perceptions and judgments are made 
obedient to the truth. 

School government is, then, the proper orderiug 
of both the organic and individual action in the 
schools, so as to secure in the pupils the best possi- 
ble development of the mind and discipline of the 
heart. 



CHAPTEK II. 

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF GOOD SCHOOL GOVERNMENT, 
SPECIFICALLY CONSIDEEED. 

Importance of specific notice— Obstacles accidental^ organic, and social — 
The accidental, external and internsl—Exteryial continffent—Defectixe 
accommodations— Tlie beautiful tends to order— Internal contingent — 
Insufficient apparatus — Organic obstacles, external and internal — Ex- 
ternal organic — Improper distribution of departments and labor- 
Excessive labor demanded— Paralyzes the teacher's energies — Internal 
wganic—lm^eriect classification and want of system— Want of com- 
petitive examinations — Social obstacles — Parental opposition to good 
school government — Neighborhood antagonism — Official unfaithful- 
ness — Radical insubordination of human noture — Practical inferences 
—Difficulties demand improvement the more— EflTort should be com- 
prehensive — Duty belongs not to the teacher alone — Too much not 
to be expected. 

In tlie preceding chapter, allTision was made to 
certain incidental obstacles which stand opposed to 
the improYement and perfection of school govern- 
ment, and which, as such, are a cause of its present 
depressed and neglected condition. Those obstacles 
deserve more than a passing allusion, for their impor- 
tance is such that, without their removal in good 
part, even the general prevalence of just views of the 
nature of that government, will not avail to secure 
the desired reformation. Indeed, the efforts to re- 
move the one and improve the other, must run 
parallel, to be either consistent or successful. 

Furthermore, a proper examination of these ob- 



OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF GOOD aOVERmrENT. 25 

stacles bears directly upou some of the points to be 
subsequently discussed, affording, in case of some of 
tliem, a partial elucidation. 

Proceeding with tliis examination, we find these 
obstacles to be threefold, those which are accidental, 
those organic, and those social, in their origin and 
character. 

Under the head of contingent or accidental ob- 
stacles to good goyernment in the school, we include 
all those that may be said to inyolye the material 
condition of the school. These are properly of two 
kinds, the external and the internal ; the former in- 
cluding whateyer pertains to the external accommo- 
dation of the school : the latter inyolying whateyer 
may relate more directly to the conyenienoe of its 
internal operations. 

Among the obstacles of the former kind, the ex- 
ternal contingent, must be included the unsightly 
location of school houses, bad or insufficient play- 
grounds, rude and ill-conditioned buildings, (" Gaunt, 
ghaistly, ghost-alluring edifices," as Burns would 
style them) ; buildings not only an outrage upon the 
possibility of architecture, but utterly insufficient in 
size to preyent the necessity of crowding the pupils ; 
rough, unfinished floors and walls ; uncurtained or 
unshaded windows, and a hard uncomfortable style 
of desk and seat. The direct tendency of aU such 
insufficient and unworthy accommodations is to pro- 
duce a rough, ill-tempered, insubordinate nature. 
And so directly do they tend to this sayagery, and to 
the consequent destruction of all genial or humane 



26 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

control, that only tiie blindness whicli grows out of 
mere greed, can fail to perceive tlieir baleful influ- 
ence, and the pitiable folly of the "penny-wise" 
economy which allows them existence. 

The true correction of some of these evils, that is, 
that correction which does not stop with attaining 
the nearer limit of mere comfort, doubtless comes 
wdthin that nobler field which it is so much the fash- 
ion to decry, the culture of the beautiful. But decry 
it who will, the influence of the beautiful is human- 
izing, and, as such, it tends always to order. 

Of those obstacles which grow out of internal con- 
tingencies, we may enumerate the lack of proper or 
suflicient apphances for carrying on the practical, or 
in other words, the demonstrative and illustrative 
portions of the work of instruction. The w^ant of 
ample blackboards, of numerical frames, of explana- 
tory cards or charts, of maps and dra^^dngs, of mathe- 
matical blocks, indeed, of apparatus generally, can 
not but so far naiTOw down the student's work to the 
simple book and the mere recitation, as to furnish no 
proper or pleasing outlet for his sui^lus activity and 
ingenuity. In some cases, that activity and ingenuity 
v,dll doubtless sink back into sheer dullness and stag- 
nation. But more often it will unfortunately w^ork 
itseK out in acts of disorder, mischief, and, perhaps, 
overt acts of insubordination, and thus burden or 
counteract the effort of the teacher to maintain good 
government in the school. 

Passing to the obstacles which are organic in their 
origin and character, we define them as being those 



.r>\ 



OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF GOOD GOVERNMENT. 27 

wliicli belong to tlic constitution, or to tlie working of 
the school itseK. These may also be subdivided as 
external and internal ; the former including such as 
are determined to the school by the ^ill of its patrons 
or local officers ; and the latter, those that fall more 
immediately under the jurisdiction of the teacher. 

Under the external organic, we include such 
e^ols as the want of a thorough system of grading, 
and of a consistent distribution of the departments, 
wherever such an organization is made practicable by 
the size of the school; the assignment of several 
teachers to one room ; and what is, especially in our 
city schools, the most common, and everywhere a 
most intolerable evil, the want of a sufficient number 
of teachers for the aggregate of the pupils to be con- 
trolled and taught. These evils all tend directly to 
discourage every attempt at good government, by the 
unnecessary labor which they impose, and the inevi- 
table confusion they create. A simple reference to 
the underlying principle as unfolded by Political 
Economy ; namely, that of the necessity for a disti'ibu- 
tion of labor, T\dll suffice to show the correctness of 
the position here taken. 

With regard to the last of the evils specified, there 
is still a more serious cause of complaint. The diffi- 
culty is not that there is simply an unvnse distribu- 
tion of labor ; it is rather that the amount of labor 
required, in order to any proper instruction or gov- 
ernment, is utterly preposterous ; for the teacher to 
accomplish any satisfactory portion of it, is among 
the practical impossibihties. Overwhelmed, as many 



28 SCHOOL GOVERNJ^CENT. 

teachers are, with such an excess of numbers as to 
prechide the possibihty of individual observation, at- 
tention, and effort, and of any direct and adequate per- 
sonal influence over the pupil, what can be the result 
other than that the attempt at government should be 
altogether in the direction of vague, irregular, and 
arbitrary generalities ? 

And, under the burden of an enterprise so perplex- 
ing and so hopeless as that of attempting to secure, 
in the face of such obstacles, a consistent order, gen- 
eral interest, close appUcation, quiet obedience and 
habitual respect and subordination, what can be ex- 
pected other than that the teacher's ambition 'wiU 
become utterly broken down, and his energies hope- 
lessly paralyzed ? If this is not the result, then you 
may safely set down his as no ordinary character ; it 
is little less than heroic. 

Under the head of evils which are internal as well 
as organic, and which, as such, stand in the way of 
good government, we include such as the lack of a 
proj)er classification of the pupils as to studies or 
relative advancement, the absence of a definite and 
fixed order of studies, the absence of a systematic 
order of study, recitation, and exercises, and the 
failure to provide for the school a system of special 
examinations determinative of excellence, and condi- 
tional to advancement. Some of these, it will be 
seen, directly counteract the interests of good gov- 
ernment, by inducing general confusion, habits of 
irregularity or disorder, and, in one instance, posi- 
^ve self-will in the free choice of studies. The last, 



OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF GOOD GOVERNMENT. 29 

in failing to provide tlie liighesfc possible stimulus 
toward superior appKcation and attainments, indi- 
rectly leads to the same injurious result. It does 
this by not opening sufficient channels for the coun- 
ter-diversion of the pupil's activity. In the case 
of every restless and enterprising nature, each new 
encouragement offered to a noble ambition is just 
so far an influence tending to withdraw the attention 
and the energies fi'om w^hat is petty or culpable. 
Every such influence favors successful government. 

We pass now to the consideration of those obstacles 
in the way of school government, which are of social 
origin. We fear it is not generally reahzed that 
society is practically opposed to all really good and 
effective government of the young. And, among all 
the evils which such government is called to encounter, 
we apprehend this social counter-current is the most 
wide-spread and persistent. Considered with refer- 
ence to its immediate sources, it may be designated 
as three-fold, loarental, social proper, and ojfficial. 

To begin with, good government in the family is 
the exception and not the rule. Parents indulge 
their children at home, nay, indirectly train them to 
utter lawlessness. Hence, the impressions of both 
parents and children, as to the nature and necessity 
of good government in the school, become perverted, 
and their feehngs under its more personal and j)ress- 
ing operation become really demorahzed. They 
neither think rightly of it, nor appreciate the good in 
it. The natural consequence of this is, they set 
themselves against such government just so soon as it 



30 SCHOOL GOATilKNIHENT. 

touclies tliem. Wlien tlie lawless will of tlie child is 
put under restreaiit, or his insubordination subjects 
him to discipline, he rebels and appeals to the parent. 
When the indulgent or ungoverning parent finds 
his child under arraignment for his transgi'ession, or 
suffering the just penalty of the law he has broken, 
he rebels and, at once, joins issue v.dth the teacher. 
This done, the evil spreads, 

" Like fire in heather set." 
Other children and other parents are in danger. 
Their feehng is, "Why stand we in jeopardy?" 
Their sympathies aroused, and their fears excited, 
they make a common cause in the conflict. And now 
Gog and Magog all in commotion, what chance has 
the teacher or his government? Either his cause 
must be so transparently just that even the dense 
dust-cloud of the general excitement cannot hide its 
merits ; or he must possess both a consummate tact 
and firmness ; or he must have seated himself too 
firmly in the confidence of the school officers, or a 
few considerate and influential patrons ; or his cause is 
practically lost. But how many of our public school 
teachers can command all or any one of these con- 
tingencies ? Comparatively few. With the rest, then, 
the case is clear ; the government of the school must 
succumb to the home government, and must become 
as depressed and neglected as that. 

Nor is this all. It is too often the case that the 
school officers, being of the community and quite in 
sympathy with it, fail to sustain the teacher ; per- 
haps they even oppose him. Instead of standing up 



OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF GOOD GOVERNMENT. 31 

like men, and, tiTie to tlieii- official responsibilities, 
cliecldng and reversing the popular current, away tliey 
go witli it, sometimes even diifting down on tlie fore- 
most wave, perhaps adding to its destructive rush, by 
ostentatiously exercising their " Kttle brief authority," 
in either censuring or removing the teacher. But 
what can the government of the school ever be under 
such treatment other than so despicable a thing that 
there can be found " none so poor to do it reverence ?" 

And this social counter-current is the more formi- 
dable because it is no mere surface-evil. It is the 
surface-manifestation of a deep underlying principle 
of insubordination in the human soul. Whatever 
theory may be chosen as accounting for its origin, 
there is little enough room for doubt as to the exist- 
ence of the fact that the native position of the human 
will is one of incipient rebellion against moral re- 
straint and authoritative control. 

From the beginning, the outworking seK prefers 
its own way, even to the countervailing of its own 
best welfare. And, as the general law, only the 
long-continued pressure of self-interest, the hard 
discipline of bitter experience, or the constant and 
constraining influence of acknowledged government, 
ever serve to correct, to any adequate extent, this 
" false nature." But not even these are sufficient to 
the work of completely restoring the moral nature to 
a true and loyal subjection to reason and right, and 
thus securing in it an abiding readiness to yield obe- 
dience to the demands of all just authority. Here is 
the " ineradicable taint." 



32 SCHOOL . GOVEENMENT. 

There are certain practical lessons y/liicli it were 
well to learn from the foregoing. The natural effect 
of discovering snch obstacles in the way of all at- 
tempts to institute and maintain good government in 
the school, will be to create discouragement. To the 
enlightened and resolute spirit, however, they will 
only serve as additional proofe of the need of a more 
determined effort toward the desired improvement. 
They, in fact, reveal the province of school govern- 
ment as, in a pre-eminent sense, the true field for the 
master spu-it. 

But it should be borne in mind, as has been al- 
ready suggested, that all efforts in this direction 
should be comprehensive ; they should not be con- 
fined to an internal manipulation of the government 
itself, but should also embrace a reformation of the 
outside influences which are so adverse. The scheme 
of order and the system of discipline must, of course, 
have their share of the attention, and must be made 
as nearly perfect as may be under the circumstances. 
But, parallel v/ith this should constantly be kept the 
effort to remove whatever in the accommodations, 
apphances, and organization of the school, or in the 
condition and operation of society, interferes with the 
attainment of that perfection. 

And this is broadly suggestive of the fact that not 
alone is the teacher responsible for the existence of 
good government in the school. Upon school officers 
and patrons of schools, upon every member of the 
community, rests a share of that responsibility. It 
is for them to see that whatever can be done to re- 



OBSTACLES 1:N' THE V.AY OF GOOD GOYEllNMENT. 33 

move the external obstacles of wliicli we liave spoken, 
is done. It is for tliem to advance means, and to 
second measures for improvement in the condition 
and organization of the schools. It is for them to 
exercise a vdse seK-control and reticence as to med- 
dling with the management of the school. It is for 
many of them to learn to be governed, and to ac- 
quire the power of governing well at home, before 
they presume to sit in judgment upon the teacher 
as governor. 

And, still further, neither patrons nor teachers 
should expect too much. Great improvement may, 
by proper effort, be effected. To accomphsh all that 
can be done in that direction, should be the persis- 
tent, life-long aim. But let it be borne in mind that 
many of the evils of human condition are remediless. 
Hence, perfection is not to be expected ; and when 
perfection is not attainable, failures should not al- 
ways be condemned as faults. 



CHAPTEK III. 

DEEIVATION OF SCHOOL GOVEKNMENT FKOM PARENTAL 
AUTHORITY. 

Importance of this derivation— School government and the education 
of tlie young, united — That education an onerous work— Not to be 
undertaken by every one — Must be inspired by parental instinct and 
love — Necessary reaction on the child's nature — Child-education do- 
mestic—The idea often considered as Utopian — Not due to a fallacy 
in the theory — Due to a lack of knowledge and leisure among the 
poorer classes — To a lack of will rather than capacity among the rich 
— The caufies of these deficiencies twofold — Too little rational love for the 
child — None live properly for society — The claims of society para- 
mount — Society demands the proper training of the child— These 
causes proofs rather than objections — The government of the child 
goes with his instruction — Parental government the source of school 

government — It is in fact the key to school government School 

government re-deflned. 

Before proceeding to the discussion of the nature 
of school government, it is important that its origin, 
or derivation be ascertained. From that source, 
whatever it may prove to be, we may naturally look 
to obtain Ught sufficient for the distinct revelation of 
its more profound principles and of their practical 
application. In that direction, at least, we must 
look for the earlier indications of its radical charac- 
teristics. From what source, then, is the govern- 
ment of the school derived ? 

School government, from its ver}^ name, and from 
its definition as already given, must be seen to be 



DEEIYATION OF SCHOOL GOVERNMEl^T. 35 

jonng. It starts Avitli tlie first attempts to instituto 
that work ; it grows cotemporaneously and parallel 
witli it ; and only ^^dtli its completion can it either be 
siTOersoded or expire. 

The proj)er education of the child, commencing as 
it must, with the earher developments of its intel- 
lect, and extending over so large a portion of its 
existence ; covering, as it must, a period of so much 
dependence and weakness, and inevitably encounter- 
ing so many obstacles and adverse influences, is 
necessarily a lengthy and onerous work. Indeed, it 
is safe to say that, whenever it has been undertaken 
with any intelligent and realizing sense of its true 
nature, it has been felt and found to be one of the 
most trying that can fall to the lot of imperfect 
humanity. 

But a work of this kind, especially one so removed 
fi'om the chances of pecunia^ry gain or immediate 
rew^ard of any kind, will not be ventured upon by 
those who are governed by no higher incentives than 
those of personal advantage. A work like this, w^hich 
must be wrought out slowly year by year, amidst 
constant discouragements, 

" And all for love and nothing for reward," 

must find its potential inducements in the deeper 
instincts and the purer affections of human nature. 

For such instinct and affection, it needs httle argu- 
ment to show, we must look alone to the parental 
nature and relation. Only in the parent's heart, may 
we expect to find the forces at all adequate to the 



36 SCHOOL GOYERNMENT. 

inception and prosecution of this work. Out of tlie 
natural relations of the parent as parent and pro- 
vider, must gi'ow a sense of abiding obligation for 
the present support and development of the child; 
out of parental love and ambition, must spring pa- 
rental concern and effort for the future weKare of the 
child ; out of both this obligation and concern, must 
emerge the primitive attempt at the child's educa- 
tion ; and just in proportion to the full sense of that 
obhgation, and the inteUigent maturity of that con- 
cern, will that attempt develop into an earnest and 
thorough system of domestic culture. 

This parental dei-ivation of his cultui*e is also most 
necessar}^ to the develoj^ment of a proper filial tem- 
per in the child. Out of the child's habitual refer- 
ence to the parent for the fulfillment of this responsi- 
bihty ; out of his daily dependence on the parent for 
his intellectual sustenance and development ; out of 
his growing confidence in the ampKtude of the pa- 
rent's capacity as a " source and fount of hght ;" — 
out of all these, must grow that deep, abiding, and 
much needed regard and reverence which no other 
being can claim, and vvdiich should not be even 
shared with another. As the voice of the parent's 
heart must be; "Those whom I so love must be 
anxiously trained for their highest well-being, and 
by myseK alone, since no work so solemn and so 
sacred may be intrusted to another ;" so the ansvrer 
of the child's heart must be ; "To my parents I owe 
that developed knowledge, wtue, and power which 
are the Yery croT\Ti and blessedness of being ; and to 



DERIVATION OF SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 37 

those to wlioiu I owe so mucli, I am first and forever 
most in debt, and that beyond all possibility of too 
large a return of love and service." And so should 
the education of the child, as domestic, reduplicate 
the force of domestic care and sustentation, and the 
two bind together, as " with a two-fold cord not easily 
broken," both parent and child. Thus would the 
household be blessed with the only possible reaHza- 
tion of a perfect and lasting unity. 

Hence, we urge that the primary view of educa- 
tion, notwithstanding all that is contrary to it in the 
existing order of things, must be that of a purely 
domestic training. 

But to many, doubtless, this idea of education will 
seem fairly Utopian. As they look over the whole 
field of society, and everywhere find the intellectual 
training of the child so completely transferred to 
other hands, and so many schemes on foot, and those 
often so vast, for its accomphshment elsewhere than 
in the home, they can hardly conceive any other sys- 
tem than that of parental abdication and scholastic 
vice-royalty to be the true one. The feehng cannot 
but be strengthened by the fact that, under existing 
circumstances, certain advantages, such as a higher 
mental stimulus, more extended acquirem^ents, and 
general harmony in the popular intelligence, are the 
common results of the prevaiKng method. 

These impressions are due, however, not to any 
fallacy in the theory, but to certain practical difiicul- 
ties in the way of its reahzation, which grow out of 
the existing erroneous conformation of society. So 



38 SCHOOL GOVEENMENT. 

grave are those difficulties, tliat we even admit that 
it would be quite impossible to make the educa- 
tion of the young conform to the true idea. What 
they are may readily be shown. 

For example, among the humbler classes in society, 
where less ambitious aims and greater simplicity in 
the style of living might seem to allow opportunity 
for the performance of this work, insurmountable ob- 
stacles are to be found in the lack of the culture 
necessary to the parent's becoming the teacher, and 
in the lamentable absorption of the energies in mak- 
ing provision for mere physical comfort or material 
advantage. Hence, they have neither capacity nor 
time. So the greater interests are swallowed up 
of the less, — the seven fat kine are devoured by the 
seven kine lean and ill-favored. 

Among the more independent and more highly 
cultivated classes, where the requisite learning and 
capacity might be found, either the energies are ab- 
sorbed in the pursuit of the more ambitious ends of 
life, or the style of living adoj}ted is such as to mul- 
tiply to an excessive degree the fictitious wants of 
both the individual and the household. Hence, the 
heart is altogether pre-occupied, and the requisite 
leisure wholly forbidden. And so, ample tithes are 
paid in mint, and anise and cumin, in the merest 
fashion and frivolity, while the weightier matters of 
the law of parental obligation are neglected. 

And the grand cause of this is two-fold. Near at 
hand is that of too httle intelligent and real love of 
offspring. Love, merely instinctive or animal, there 



DEim^ATION OF SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 39 

may be ; but that which grows out of a careful and 
seK-denjing regard for the higher claims of the child's 
nature as spii-itual and immortal, Httle enough is 
there of that. So far as these higher wants of the 
child are involved, and the parent's rational obhga- 
tion to pro^dde for them is concerned, the mass ?ire 
like the ostrich, " which leaveth her eggs in the earth 
and warmeth them in the dust, and forgetteth that 
the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may 
break them. She is hardened against her young ones 
as though they were not hers : her labor is in vain, 
without fear ; because God hath deprived her of 
wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her under- 
standing." 

Somewhat less immediate, but not less serious, as 
a cause, is the fact that comparatively all live for 
themselves and not for society. Setting aside, as be- 
longing to another and higher field, the religious 
aspect of the thing, we think it may be consistently 
urged that, in that associated form of being for which 
man was designed and adapted, and to which he is, 
in fact, so necessitated ; namely, the community or 
the state, that sovereign selfishness which makes 
every man his own chief end of concern and activity, 
must be pronounced altogether abnormal and false. 
Doubtless, he owes somewhat to himself. The prin- 
ciple of seK-love so pronounces. SeK-preservation 
demands it. 

But, to look only at that side of the question, every 
man has interests vested in society, and those of the 
most vital character. Indeed, so close and important 



40 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

are the relations of society to all liis interests, that upon 
the condition and character of that very society, de- 
pends the weKare of most of those individual interests 
in which he is so apt to become selfishly absorbed. 
No man can be bhnd to the best interests of society, 
or T\dlfully neglectful of them, without offering a pre- 
mium upon his own damage. But beyond this, 
society has a claim of its own as pre-eminent, and, by 
just so much as the whole is greater than a jjart, is 
the claim made urgent. The true dignity and the 
true happmess of rational humanity requii-es that, in 
society, each individual should benevolently prefer 
the interests of the whole to his own. Men owe it to 
their o^tl rational wisdom and moral excellence, that 
they live for society rather than for themselves. 

But, we think it cannot but be seen, that, in a very 
important sense, to Hve for the proper training of 
children is to hve for the perfected well-being of 
society. The children of to-day are to constitute the 
society of to-morrow; and he who may have Httle 
power to amend society among those who now com- 
pose its fullness and strength, may labor very effec- 
tively and hopefully among the young, for its future 
regeneration. The parent who, rising above mere 
sordid pursuits, and turning a deaf ear to all the 
seducements of ambition or frivohty, wisely and 
faithfully trains his chUd for the intelligent, able, and 
virtuous discharge of the duties, parental, social, and 
ci\il, which may ultimately devolve upon him, is 
doing society, as well as himseK, his best service. 
Men, however, do not Hve for society, and hence, they 



DERIVATION OF SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 41 

do not thus give themselves to the education of the 
young in accordance with its primitive and perfect 
idea. 

While, however, these causes are enough to make 
the reahzation of the true idea as thus advanced 
quite impracticable, a little reflection will suffice to 
show that they are practically proofs of the validity 
of that idea. They urge, and with no slight force, 
the native consistency and excellence of the domestic 
theory of education. In all the facts which they 
present, it cannot but be apparent that they lead 
directly back to the position that the education of the 
child should be domestic, and to the conviction that 
it is because men are either ignorant of their primal 
relations to the race, or are unequal to their pro- 
per care, or wilfully ignore them, that education is 
not the thing it should be. 

Having thus traced the education of the young to 
the domestic circle as its original and proper terri- 
tory, and to parental authority and duty as its primal 
source, we are prepared to assume the position that 
so soon as, for any cause, the work of education 
passes out of the house and into the school, just so 
soon does the moral disciphne, or the government, 
which is one of its essential parts, go with it. The 
government must domicile with the instruction. 

This, however, reveals the fact, of which we have 
been in search, that school government has its origin in 
parental government ; it is, in fact, a contingence and 
growth of parental government, and, as such, must, in 
many points of character, be determined by the stock 



42 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

from which it springs. School government as thus de- 
termined, is the temporary and conditional transfer to 
the teacher, of all that part of the parent's authority 
which is dependent upon his exercise of the function 
of the domestic instructor, and which would be neces- 
sary to the successful education of the child in the 
home circle, according to the primitive idea. 

In parental government, then, we are to look for 
the key to the real nature of school government. 
The latter must be, in the temporary and specific, 
much what the former is in the continuous and total. 
In the parent must the teacher find in good part his 
own prototype ; and in the teacher must the parent 
cheerfully recognize his own natural vicegerent. And 
so closely will the authority of the two be found 
affihated, that, to a most important extent, they must 
stand or faU together. 

Hence, school government may be defined, as the 
exercising of that authority in the control and discip- 
line of the child, by the teacher as the parent's sub- 
stitute, v/hich v/ould be the right and duty of the 
parent were he to undertake the work of educating 
the child in his own part, supplemented, however, by 
such increase of power as will make it commensurate 
with the larger necessities of the school, as involv- 
ing greater numbers and requiring a more stringent 
order. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CHARACTEHISTICS of school GOYEBNIVrENT, AS DE- 
EIYED FEOM THAT OF THE PARENT. 

The authority of the teacher as delegated — The delegation or transfer 
complete — luterference with it suicidal — The authority enlianced by 
the transfer — Parents bound to second and strengthen it — The transfer 
afinalit}j — The authority not to be resumed — The child not to be with- 
drawn from under it — Such a remedy worse than the evil — Positively 
injurious to the child — Disregards even his natural rights — The one 
possible case of exception — School Government not necessarily invali- 
dated by errors — The authority of the teacher absolute — The authority leg- 
islative jaer .se — The school no democracy — Successful experiments in 
this direction not an objection — Self-government in the school involves 
a delusion — School Government looks forward to self-government, 
but should not formally institute it — False ideas as to self-govern- 
ment — T7ie authoHty of the teacJier imperative — Decisions to be au- 
thoritative, unargued — Logic not always invincible — Reasonings 
may be used as a supplementary means — Decisions of the autliority final 
— ^Appeal or reversal reprehensible — Would destroy parental govern- 
ment — Interference of school authorities deprecated — The teacher 
must stand his ground against it — If overborne, must resign — The 
teacher may himself reverse — The teacher may himself refer to the 
authorities — This subject to objection — TJie School Oovernment to he 
lenewlent — Parental government too often selfish — School Govern- 
ment not exposed to this error — Too little wise forecast in school 
management — The ultimate good must be paramount — Temporizing 
expedients and present ends inadmissible — Passionate or vindictive 
measures reprehensible — Degrading or annoying measures objection- 
able — Ridicule restricted in its use — Satire condemned — Hcliool Gov- 
ernment catholic in scope and spirit — The welfare of the whole the 
paramount consideration— Parental demands for specific privileges 
objectionable — The general economy of the school as a whole to be 
carefully studied. 

Hatlng thus traced the government of the school 
to that of the family as its natural source, we are now 



44 SCHOOL GOYEKNMENT. 

prepared to inquire what, in the light of this deriva- 
tion, are the characteristics of the goyernment which 
the teacher is to institute and administer in the 
school. 

And, here, we observe, first, that the authority 
vested in the teacher, and exercised in governing the 
school, is substantially, though not formally, a dele- 
gated authority. It is in substance delegated, since 
it is identical with that exercised by the parent, and 
would in fact remain in his hands, but for his transfer 
to another, of his original functions as instructor. 
It is, however, not formally made over, since the 
transfer is no matter of stipulation, the whole being 
not an act, but a necessary consequence of the pa- 
rent's demission of the power to teach. This result- 
ant lack of formality in the transfer of the authority 
to govern the cliild, so far from abating any of the 
derived characteristics of the authority, only serves 
to add a new and necessary force to them. Were the 
authority formally made over to the teacher by the 
parent, the exercise of it might be assumed to be 
subject to either the expressed or impHed stipulations 
of the transfer ; but going over to him, with the edu- 
cational functions as their necessary concomitant, it 
carries with it all its original attributes in their best 
and strongest character as not arbitrary, but inevi- 
table. 

Hence, out of this unrestricted delegation of the 
authority of the parent to the teacher, grow certain 
positive and practical conclusions. And, fij.*st, the 
transfer is complete, and the teacher's right to exer- 



DERH^D CHARACTERISTICS. 45 

cise tlie authority is entire. While there are author- 
itative rights vested in the parent, as parent and 
pro^ddential guardian of the child, which he may not 
abdicate, and which the teacher may not assume, yet 
all those which the parent might possess and exer- 
cise in the control of the child under the process of 
education at home, belong, under a system of educa- 
tion in the school, to the teacher alone. If, for ex- 
ample, the parent in training the child himself might 
insist upon punctuahty ojl* regidarity ; if he may de- 
mand impHcit submission and without appeal; or 
if he may administer discijDline or punishment in 
this or that form, — all tliis may the teacher do, and 
without subjection to question or interference. The 
parent has no right to refuse these prerogatives to 
the teacher, nor to disturb him in his necessary ex- 
ercise of them. 

Indeed, such interference with the teacher's pre- 
rogative is worse than improper ; it is suicidal. 
Inasmuch as the school government is but a trans- 
ferred part of the home government, by just so much 
as the parent restricts the teacher, he practically 
retrenches his own authority; and by so much 
as he disturbs the teacher's exercise of authority, 
he practically damages his own administration of 
government. Hence, it is commonly seen to be the- 
fact that aU such parental interference in the govern- 
ment of the school re-acts upon that of the home 
circle, and so, that which began by distressing the 
former, ends by hastening the demoralization of the 
latter. Thus, the parent plaj^s the part of a princij^al 



y 



46 SCHOOL GO\"ERNMENT. 

who distresses an agent, but chiefly to his own 
detriment. 

One very important principle evolved in this con- 
nection, is very generally overlooked. The prevailing 
impression is that the authority transferred by the 
parent to the teacher, is in some part diminished by 
the transfer. Few parents feel that the authority of 
the teacher is as important as their ov/n. But the 
fact is, it is, within its sphere, even more important. 
The transfer of the authority is such as to intensify 
rather than to depress it. When it passes from the 
family to the school, it passes to a field in which its 
situation is more critical, and its success a matter of 
wider concern. The larger number grouped under 
one control, the wider diversity of dispositions and 
habits, the more stringent demands of the one com- 
mon object, for perfect order and thorough discip- 
line, — all these call for a stronger hand as well as a 
clearer head than are imperative in the simpler and 
more restricted field of the home. 

The inference to be drawQ from this fact is then 
necessarily, that, so far from any attempt on the part 
of parents or patrons, to disturb and thus weaken the 
authority of the teacher, their first and most impera- 
tive duty is to sustain and strengthen that authority 
to the full extent of its rightfal demand as, for the 
time being, superior to their own. Hence, the only 
impression conveyed to the child's mind by either 
their opinions or actions, should be very distinctly 
this ; no interference will be attempted except to sec- 
ond the efforts of the teacher, and sustain the law of 



DERIYED CnAriACTERISTICS. 47 

tlie scliool. CompLiint is, tlicrcfore, worse than iir^c- 
less, and rebelKon only ensures a more conq)l(jte 
subjection. 

Out of the completeness of this transfer of the 
parental authority, grows another principle ; namely, 
that, except in a single case, the transfer must be in 
an important sense a finaHty. The functions and 
prerogatiyes of instruction and goyernment, as we 
haye seen, go together. If now, because of his own 
incompetence, the parent transfers these to the 
teacher, he has no right under ordinary circum- 
stances, to resume the one without resuming the 
other; nor may he resume both without proyiding 
for their better reinstitution elsewhere, and more, for 
their reinstitution in substance and form, enough 
better to counterbalance all the eyils of change. 

TVTien then the child has been consigned to the 
teacher's charge, it is equally for instruction and dis- 
cij)line as one and inseparable. Nor is it competent 
for the parent or guardian to withdraw the child from 
under this instruction and discipline which go to 
make up his education, Tvithout proyiding so much 
better for his enjoyment of their adyantages at home 
or elsewhere, that the eyils resulting from the arbi- 
trary change, such as the child's loss of time, the 
destruction of his confidence in teachers, the strength- 
ening of his tendencies to insubordination, and the 
perfecting of his faith in his power to control the 
parent as well as the teacher, shall all be oyerbal- 
anced by the greater good secured through the pa- 
rent's transfer of him to some other field of training. 



48 SCHOOL go\t:enment. 

Unless the alternative here snggested is secured, it 
is evident that in most cases the remedy is worse 
than the evil which is the subject of complaint. 
Send the child to some other school, and, though he 
may have been practically in the right before, he is 
now, from the lesson of insubordination which has 
been taught him, quite sure to be thorouglily in the 
wrong at the first opportunity. In this case, either 
the original battle has to be fought over and fought 
out at last, or the doubtful experiment of change has 
to be attempted again, and under circumstances more 
dubious than before. 

Ketain the child at home, and without securing 
that the parent's exercise of the functions of instruc- 
tion and discipUne shall be comj^aratively faultless, 
and the gain is altogether ambiguous. The parent 
has practically discharged a quack fi'om abroad, in 
order to turn empiric himseK, at home. Even though 
the latter were in some respects better than the former, 
the disease may be aggravated by the loss of time, 
and so the patient is the worse for the change. So in 
the case of the child, it is a cardinal principle that 
the steady and sustained application and enforcement 
of even a less perfect tuition and rule, are better than 
a sudden and fractious change to those assumed to 
be better, or even really so. 

If, however, as is more commonly the case, the 
child is simply withdrawn from the school without 
provision for his education at home, the whole is of 
the nature of a direct trespass upon his higher 
rights and necessities. Carlyle has somewhere said, 



DERrna) CHARACTERISTICS. 49 

" For one to possess capacity for knowledge, and die 
ignorant, — this, I call tragedy." Yet for the enact- 
ment of this very tragedy, he makes direct prepara- 
tion, who thus withdraws the child fi'om such oppor- 
tunities of training as he has, and leaves him where 
he has none. 

It has been intimated that there is one case, and 
only one, in which the parent's resumption of the au- 
thority demitted to the teacher, is admissible. That 
occurs in the extremity of a prevailing abuse of the 
authority on the part of the teacher, or his complete 
failure to administer it effectually. But let it be ob- 
served that the conditions of the resumption are 
solely a prevaihng abuse or a complete failure. The 
grounds for this limitation are plain. In almost 
every instance in which this resumption of the autho- 
rity is attempted, it is based upon some partial ill- 
success of the teacher, or some isolated instance of 
faulty discipline. But here, as everywhere, action 
so radical and violent, upon premises so narrow and 
unsettled, is not only erroneous but reprehensible. 
He is not far from being the greater transgressor 
who, for a natural error or a single faidt, makes a 
man an offender beyond both the enjoyment of rights 
or the chance of reclamation. 

There are defects in the administration of the best 
governments. But until it is quite certain that a per- 
fect government, and its faultless administration 'are 
immediately attainable, it is not wise to denounce 
the government we have, or to inaugurate actual 
revolution. Hence, occasional slips of the teacher in 



50 SCHOOL GO^-EENSIENT. 

tlie exercise of discipline, wliile they of course mar 
iiis goYernment, do not cancel or cut short in one 
iota the teacher's authority. Adopt the j)rinciple 
that they do, and you bring parental government also 
to the block, for, as a matter of fact, it is itself noto- 
riously Tvide of this very perfection. Indeed, bad as 
school government is, it is, in the aggregate, much 
better than the aggregate of domestic government ; 
and it only fails to reach a still higher standard of 
excellence, because the latter, in its defectiveness, 
acts upon it as a perpetual check and counteraction. 
The parent or guardian, therefore, who pursues the 
course here reprehended, practically condemns him- 
self, and only needs to carry out that course in order 
to be speedily " hoist with his own petard." 

The second essential characteristic of the teacher's 
authority as derived from that of the parent, is that it 
is absolute. By this we do not mean that it is 
absolute in the highest sense as underived and 
irresponsible, but only that it is absolute with refer- 
ence to the relative position of the teacher and the 
pupil. The authority of the teacher as sovereign in 
the school is in no way derived from, or dependent 
on the will of the pupil as subject ; nor is the teacher 
in any way amenable to the pupil for his mode of 
exercising it. So far as the pupil-subject is con- 
cerned, the teacher is, in the better sense of the term, 
a tine autocrat, and may both take his stand and 
carry liimself as such. 

Out of this essential principle grow certain practi- 
cal inferences which not only go far towards deter- 



DEIIIYED CIIAEACTErvISTICS. 51 

mining tlie character of school goTernment, but 
which decisiyelj settle the false nature of some of 
the methods of government current. Of these infcr- 
rences, this is to be observed, first, that the authority 
of the teacher in governing the school, is legislative 
■l?er se. From that authority, as the sole originating 
source, springs the entn-e law for the school. Here, 
as elsewhere, true government originates of natural 
right, in the higher, more specific, and somewhat ex- 
clusive field of the superior intelligence and will, 
and goes dowoi thence, according to its own clearer 
dictates and steadier purposes, to, and upon those 
who, as constituting the broader, less inteUigent, less 
seK-sustaining and seK-controlled mass, are the 
projDer subjects of government. To install the teacher 
in the school upon any other assumption, is both 
absurd in itself and false to the nature of school gov- 
ernment as determined by the law of the domestic 
government ;' indeed, we may add, false to the nature 
of that domestic government as determined by the 
law of tho divine government which is its natural an- 
tecedent. It is, then, for the teacher as the select 
one, and ciS the superior intelligence and the abler 
will, to originate the w^hole scheme of law for the 
school, and to wield its sanctions throughout the 
entire field of discipEne. And these functions are 
imperative upon him. Except temporarily, for cer- 
tain specific ends, he may neither suspend nor trans- 
fer them. 

Hence, school government cannot, according to 
any true view, be taken as a democracy, either pure 



52 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

or representative. Its subjects are neither capaci- 
tated for the exercise of the functions of government, 
nor naturally entitled to them. To suppose other- 
wise is to assume that those, who are yet confessedly 
unequal to the work of self-sustentation and self- 
culture, are capable of self-government ; that those, 
who could not originate the school, can wield its 
organization when it has been provided for them. 

It is here fi'eely granted that experiments have 
been made in this direction, and sometimes with no 
inconsiderable success. These, however, do not in- 
vahdate the principle. The democracy in these 
cases is practically a fiction, though a seemingly fair 
one ; and its success, however promising, is equivocal 
if not deceptive, and otherwise fallacious in theory. 
It is due altogether to the tact and skill of the gov- 
ernor, and not to the self-active intelligence or power 
of the governed. Indeed, in such cases, the whole 
cast of the government is taken from the conception 
and leadings of the teacher. He is the power that 
wields the long arm of the lever, while, by his art, the 
pupil who sits astride of the short arm is induced to 
exert himself strenuously, as if he were really lifting 
the weight, instead of being himself the weight 
lifted. There is perhaps no harm in his making this 
deceptive effort, no harm in his indulging that flatter- 
ing fancy ; possible even, some incidental good may, 
by the skill of the teacher, be induced from both. 
Still it may be doubted whether it is consistent for the 
philosopher to assume the appearance to be the fact. 



DERmi:© CIIAI^ACTERISTICS. 53 

Neither is the weight self -hf ting, nor is the governing 
self-government, for such an assumption. 

It is gi'anted here, that school government, as per- 
haps every government should, looks forward to seK- 
government, and, wisely managed, does prepare the 
way for it. But it does this rather by maintaining 
its own autocratic character, than by abdicating the 
throne and setting up a supposititious seK-govern- 
ment, under the auspices of a delusive democracy. It 
prepares the way for ultimate seK-government, by 
developing, through the observation and reflection 
stimulated by a true control, a just conception of the 
nature and applications of law and its sanctions. 
Still more significantly does it prepare the vray for 
that self-government, by training its subjects to an 
habitual reverence for true superiority and to an im- 
plicit submission to the rightful authority vvhich 
abeady is. 

The idea of seK-government irrespective of a con- 
stant and loyal reference to a government prior to, 
and higher than that of seK, is one of the dangerous 
fallacies of the times which school government should 
vigorously endeavor to correct, rather than to weakly 
countenance. So also, the idea of the possibiHty of 
the fair institution and sustained exercise of self- 
government, previous to estabhshing the habit of sim- 
ple obedience to the higher authority, is another 
fallacy as common and as fatal in its tendencies. 
He who has not learned to obey, has not learned to 
govern ; and he who has not acquired the habit of 
reverencing the just requisitions of a higher intelli- 



54 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

gence and vrill than his own, cannot render a true 
obedience to the seK-imposed regulations of his own 
moral impnlses and energies. And how few are thus 
fitted for the v/ork of self-government, is clearly indi- 
cated elsewhere in that significant and divinely au- 
thoritative maxim, " He that ruleth his own spirit is 
mightier than he that taketh a city." 

Again, the teacher's authority as absolute, must be 
imperative, rather than dehberative or demonstra- 
tive^,. His requirements and decisions, lq whatever 
form presented, whether that of request, demand or 
mandate, must be unargued. What he resolves upon 
and pronounces law, should be simply and steadily 
insisted upon as right per se, and should be promptly 
and fully accepted by the pupil as right, on th.- one 
ground that the teacher, as such, is governor. The 
faith of the pupil in the equity of the law must be 
begotten of the authority and the law themselves, and 
not of any reasonings thereupon. When the occasion 
rightly serves, some pains may be taken to demon- 
strate the rightness of ti; ; authority, but not the rec- 
titude of the decisions. If that rectitude is neither 
accepted on the basis of dmple faith in the authority, 
nor on the ground of its own self-evident claims, 
(which it will be, if the pupil is at all properly dis- 
posed,) your argumentation will be either thrown 
away, or it vnR only serve to suggest objections cal- 
culated to strengthen and embolden the rebellious 
spii'it. 

It is a great mistake to fancy that the sound con- 
clusions of the logical understanding are necessarily 



. DEEI^vTiD CIIAEACTErJSTICS. 55 

invincible. Tliat is or is not, altogether as tiie ^dll 
may be positioned. Eeason with the will accordant, 
and all goes " merry as a marriage bell :" reason 
against the inclination or fixed purpose of the will, 
and yonr logic "wastes its sweetness on the desert 
air." Especially is this true of the impulsive and 
unreasoning multitude ; and the child's nature is pre- 
cisely that of the multitude. With both, your reason- 
ing has force only as it accords with the inclination. 
Hence, in the school, as in the family, faith in the 
authority is a far better basis for enforcing the de- 
cisions arrived at in governing, than any display 
of their logical consistency. Hence, further, the 
thorough subjugation of the Tfill to the authority as 
absolute should always antedate any resort to discus- 
sion or demonstration. Wlien effective discipline has 
reduced the subject of government to cheerful obedi- 
ence, conclusive logic may sometimes happily follow 
up the work, and complete it by compelling the un- 
derstanding to endorse the surrender of the will. 

Once more, in the government of the school, as in 
that of the family, the decisions of the authority as 
absolute must be final, or in other words, must be 
substantially beyond appeal or reversal. To aUow 
any such appeal or reversal as a recognized element 
in school government, is to conspire its speedy over- 
throw. Any such reference to the outside authority 
of parents or patrons is no more to be countenanced 
or endured than it would be in the case of the home 
government. Against its subversive influences, pa- 
rental authority could not long make head ; no more 



56 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

can the authority of the teacher. The principle is of 
equal appHcation to both: here, they stand or fall 
together. 

This is, in a certain shape, one of the very obstacles 
that parental government has to encounter. Many a 
conscientious parent understands its working. Some 
stringent but wise restriction is imposed upon his 
children. It soon gets to the ears of the neighbor- 
hood. It is at once caught up as indicative of pride 
or exclusiveness, or as involving a tacit rebuke of the 
ungovemed state of other famihes. Then it is openly 
condemned so that the censiu'e passes from child to 
child until it reaches those under restraint. To them 
it comes with all the force of a sustained reference or 
appeal. Up springs from this an incipient rebeUion. 
To meet this, the government of the parent is, per- 
haps, put upon its defense, and thus its authority is 
irreparably damaged. As with the domestic govern- 
ment, so with that of the school, only that, in the 
latter case, the mischief is the greater, since school 
government is more often, by both children and 
parents, held as a lawful subject of animadversion. 

Nor is an appeal to the school authorities, whether 
it be informal or legally regular, less injurious. The 
teacher may err in his decisions, and, at times, his 
exercise of authority may be unhappy; yet, in the 
sight of the school, both should be fairly sustained. 
Reverse the one or denounce the other, and you 
iiltack his government in its most vital part ; you im- 
pair its capacity to command respect and submission 
even where its demands are intrinsically perfect. 



DERIVED ClIAEACTEEISTICS. 57 

Everywhere among our j^outli, the spirit of insubor- 
dination is so predominant that it is not safe to relax 
the reins of gOYernmenfc at all, not even when they 
haye been improi)erly tightened. Doubtless, some 
incidental evils may result from this unyielding grasp 
of the authority; but let those who are governed 
charge them where they belong, that is, to their own 
insubordination. Hence, rather than touch the gov- 
ernment of the school, let the school authorities, 
while, perhaps, privately counsehng the teacher 
against future errors, promptly refuse to entertain 
any appeal against his authority. Let them bear in 
mind, that errors in government are nowhere un- 
avoidable except in the fancies of fools, and that 
invariably a defective government is better than none. 
Hence, also, the teacher who finds his authority 
thus, through the error or the weakness of school 
officers, made subject to appeal and counteraction, 
should, out of regard both to the preservation of his 
own dignity and the maintenance of government in 
the school, coolly stand his ground, and insist upon 
the enforcement of his decisions. If he finds this 
made impracticable by the stubborness or the mag- 
nitude of the opposition, let him promptly resign. 
To remain under such circumstances, is to acknow- 
ledge himseK a subject ; is to confess himseK defeated, 
and, hence, he can expect but little more than to be 
treated as a conquered enemy. To maintain his au- 
thority and secure good government in spite of these 
adverse influences, will be found a difficult and a 
doubLiui task. Both self-respect and just policy. 



58 SCHOOL GOYEKNMEXT. 

fhen, dictate tlie one course. A change of base vnU. 
tend to re-establish his character as a strategist, and 
secure a clearer field of operations. 

While we object to any appeal ii .m the authority 
of the teacher to any other extraneous source of 
power, Ave by no means cut off the teacher himseK 
from the right to reverse his own decisions, or reform 
his OY\^n administration of government. As absolute, 
he may both make and unmake law, only let him bear 
in mind that the latter is the much more dehcate 
work of the two. To take a position is easy, but to 
retrace the steps taken, that is the work. This retrac- 
tion is, however, sometimes both a necessity and a 
necessary e^dl. In such a case, great must be his ad- 
dress vv^ho can effect it gracefully and with unimpaired 
influence. If he can do tliis, let him do it by all 
means ; only let him carefully count the possible cost 
beforehand. Always, too, let it be undertaken at his 
own instance, and as his own exclusive prerogative. 

Beyond this case of positive reversal or retraction, 
it may sometimes occur that the teacher himself 
chooses to refer the points in question to the consti- 
tuted authorities. He may, for instance, be well as- 
sured of being sustained by those authorities, in 
which case, a reference only completes the discomfi- 
ture of the refractory pu]3il. He may also, in the 
case of matters which he does not consider vital, and 
as to which he has no choice, prefer a reference as 
a means of escaping a direct responsibility. Both of 
these are, however, open to the objection that the 
action of the teacher is politic and evasive, rather 



DEllIYED CHAEACTEinSTICS. 59 

than frank and independent. In tlie first instance, 
tlie pupil is partially imposed upon, for tliere is no 
real intervention in his behalf ; and in the second, the 
idea of a divided authority is directly countenanced. 
For these reasons, while the right of the teacher to 
aUow the reference is clear, the propriety of resorting 
to it is doubtful. 

On these general grounds, then, and with these ex- 
ceptions, it is urged that the decisions of the teacher, 
as absolute in his authority, must be accepted and 
maintained as a finality. 

Returning to the characteristics of the school gov- 
ernment as derived from that of the parent, it is 
urged finally, that it must be benevolent. The end 
for which the authority is exercised in the case of the 
teacher, as in that of the parent, lies whoUy out of, 
and beyond himseK. The control and discipline of 
the child are not for the parent, noi^for the teacher, 
but for the child only. An incidental good may ac- 
crue to both the former, but the good directly sought 
is that of the child alone. And that good must be 
sought even though no such incidental good, but 
rather a positive eidl, seems to be the reward of those 
v/ho govern. In this principle, is summed up the 
grand humanity of both domestic and school govern- 
ment They are, neither of them, " finely touched, 
but to fine issues," and of those issues, this benevo- 
lence is the noblest. 

But plain as this principk is, it is too often over- 
looked in both parental and school government, 
though most signally, as we believe hi the former. 



60 SCHOOL GOVEENMEKT. 

In the vast majority of cases, parental autlioritj is 
'xercised in pure selfishness. Not what is for the 
ciiild's real injury is condemned and punished, but 
what is productive of inconvenience or loss to the 
p^krent. For example, the child, disregarding the 
parent's caution against carelessness, breaks a win- 
dow. The fault, noY\^, which is brought home to his 
conscience, and for w^hich he is made to believe him- 
seK punished, is simply the loss he has occasioned by 
the breaking of so much glass. The real fault, how- 
ever, was solely his disregard of the warning given 
him against carelessness. That warning was given 
altogether, (or, at least should have been so given,) 
to prevent his acquiring the always mischievous 
habit of being careless. And yet, httle pains is taken 
to impress upon the child's heart a sense of liis guilt 
in tliis direction. Not thus is he made to feel : "It 
was unfilial and unkind in me to give so httle heed to 
that wise and lo^dng caution against carelessness." 
More commonly the only feehng awakened amounts 
to this, " Confound that old window ! I wish glass 
did'nt cost anything ;" a finahty that would be su- 
premely ridiculous, were not the error it reveals so 
fatal. 

In the government of the school, the tendency to 
this evil is not so great. The combination of syste- 
matic instruction with the exercise of authority, 
necessarily keeps the teacher's mind steadily under 
the influence of an object that can only be sought for 
the good of the pupil. Thus, the steady piu'poses of 
the instruction as a benevolence, serve to correct the 



DERR^ED CHAEACTERISTICS. 61 

possible tenclency of the discij)lme towards seMsli- 
ness ; and so strong is their pressure in this direction, 
that it will be only a narrow and half-brutal nature, 
such as, we believe, is seldom to be found among our 
teachers, that can fail to be controlled by them. 
Hence, it is not, and cannot be at aU common for 
teachers to govern according to the mere dictates of 
personal convenience, or to administer discipline un- 
der the irritated impulse of some sense of incurred 
discomfort or damage. If, however, the teacher's 
temptation to such departures from the spirit of true 
school government be less, it behooves him to see to 
it the more carefuUy that all his action is ordered 
the more perfectly in accordance with the truest good 
of the pupil as the only end to be sought. 

But there is a point of great importance beyond 
this. There is in all our school operations, a lack of 
forecasting wisdom and beneficence, and a dominant 
content with such provisions and attainments as are 
altogether present and temporary. The child in the 
school is seen and held, only as the child he now is. 
"WTiat he is to be as the final growth of his present 
being is altogether overlooked. The school is nothing 
beyond its present necessities and effects. Its need, ~^ 
as looking forward to the largest ultimate result, is of 
no account. Hence, everywhere the insufferable 
school-house, the crude furniture, the naked walls, 
the absence of maps, blackboards, and apparatus, 
and the old books. Hence, also, the cheap teacher, 
the unstudied methods of instruction, and the tem- 
porary devices in government. But, were it borne in 



62 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

mind that the child is growing to be a man, and that 
under the training of these mean and miserable in- 
fluences ; were it rea^hzed how much these may have 
to do with making him in recollection, spirit and ac- 
tion, the very man he should not be, it would seem 
incredible that the provision made for the merely 
present in the school, should not be raised so as to 
conform to the necessary demands of the future. 

All this should impress upon the teacher the im- 
portance of the grand principle, that in all his bene- 
volent control of the pupil, he is to give the first and 
most anxious concern to his ultimate weKare. Pres- 
ent considerations may have a certain importance; 
but they must never come into comi^etition Vrith the 
graver elements of a future and more imperative 
good. What the child is to-day must not, either in 
the instruction or the government of the school, be 
overlooked ; but what he is to be hereafter, as having 
been molded by that instruction and government, 
must be the paramount consideration. Not then 
what will suffice for the immediate pleasure or profit 
of the pupil, should be the teacher's guide, or his 
measure of content in determining the direction of the 
law or the sum of the disciphne in the government of 
the school. The controlling question with the teacher 
must be, what, notwithstanding its cost to me, or its 
pressure upon the pupil now, is best for the prospec- 
tive weKare of the latter as a member of society and 
a subject of civil government ? 

From the foregoing, the folly and the vice of all 
temporizing in disciphne will be evident. The teacher 



DERIVED CHiriACTERISTICS. 63 

is sometimes induced to rest content with temporary- 
expedients and haK-way measures. But tlie very 
sources of this inducement might suffice to reveal his 
error in yielding to it. Those sources are generally 
his ovm. indolence or sensitiveness. The rationale of 
their influence is this ; foreseeing a conflict as the 
result of adopting the latter, but more severe, course 
in discipline, the teacher is unwilling to make the 
strenuous and persistent effort necessary to a success- 
ful issue, or he shrinks from the pain which he must, 
for the present, both cause and endure, and so he 
falls back upon measures that promise the compara- 
tive attainment of the immediate end with less ex- 
pense to the energies and the sensibilities. The 
natural result, however, of all such evasions of duty 
is " only evil and that continually." They commonly 
fail to secure even the present end which the teach^pr 
has in view ; and the painful but important conflict 
which he seeks to avoid, is only deferred until the 
occurrence of some future and aggi'avated comphca- 
tion, in the adjustment of which, the labor and the 
pain incurred will often be more than doubled. 
And the failure to secure the truest vrelfare of the 
pupil in the direction of moral discipline and develop- 
ment is equally complete. Instead of learning the 
salutary lesson at once, and being thus enabled to 
grow from day to day, under its fashioning influence, 
into the perfect subject of just government, he goes 
on until the final struggle, unsubdued, stimulated by 
delay to a more stubborn resistance, and roused by 
the ultimate but unexpected overthrow, to the indul- 



64 - SCHOOL GOVERN]\IENT. 

gence of far more bitter and revengeful feeKngs than 
would have been possible under a contrary treat- 
ment. Of the unhappy influence of all this upon the 
after ideas and temper of the man, every teacher can 
judge for himseK. 

As another inference from the benevolent charac- 
ter of the school government, all passionate, violent 
or vindictive measures must be condemned. Of these, 
little need be said. Act directly as an influence and 
an example, on the pupil's e\al passions, to counte- 
nance, aggravate, and perpetuate their indulgence, 
they assuredly wiU. As certainly will they re-act un- 
favorably on the teacher's character, on his influence 
in the school, and on the authority of his government. 
The least that can be said of such measures, is that 
they are unwise and injurious. The truth more nearly 
is, they are unmanly and inhumane. 

Not less severely must all means or appliances of 
discipUne, which are of a merely degrading character, 
or which are simply calculated to badger and exas- 
perate the pupil, without leading to real subjection, 
be reprehended. As it is inconsistent with the pa- 
rent's self-respect that he should basely humihate 
himseK in the person of his child, and as his wisdom 
and benevolence must forbid all seeming effort at 
mere petty annoyance or retaliation, so must both 
these be inconsistent and reprehensible in the teach- 
er's administration of government, resting, as that 
government must, upon the parental basis from which 
its derivation has just been traced. 

Perhaps, also, no more fitting place will occur for 



DEEIVED CHAIiACTEEISTICS. 65 

a proper reference to the use of satire or ridicule. It 
is true the topic is closely related to the consideration 
of child-sensibility, as developed in the followiag 
chajDter. But commonly the use of these two ele- 
ments is rather a matter of self-indulgence or self- 
gratification, and so bears directly against the princi- 
ple of benevolence or unselfishness in government. 
A free use of ridicule or satire, regardless of their 
species and influence, is pure selfishness. 

Here, then, there is occasion for discrimination and 
self-control on the part of the teacher. Within a cer- 
tain restricted limit, a simple scholastic ridicule ; 
namely, that employed purely for the purpose of cor- 
recting needless error in knowledge, or persistence in 
seK-neglect, and where, from the pupil's known char- 
acter, or from the nature of the error, no other means 
will subserve the desired end so well, — such a ridicule 
is legitimate. But whenever ridicule becomes purely 
personal, and touches defects which are not due to 
the failure of the voluntary nature, but are constitu- 
tional or excusable ; whenever it is indulged in for 
the purpose of mere self-gratification, is mingled with 
any irritation of feeling, and is enjoyed with the keener 
relish because it is seen to sting and wound, — when- 
ever any of this is true, ridicule is to be utterly con- 
demned. As to satire, much the same is true, saving 
only this difference, that as satire is usually more ex- 
tended and caustic in its character, it is even more 
dangerous than misguided or malicious ridicule. As- 
suming this as correct, it follows necessarily, that all 
harsh, discourteous, vituperative language is to be 



QQ SCHOOL GO^TIlNilEXT. 

utterly reprobated, and for reasons tlie more evident, 
because it can not involve a particle of either bene- 
volence or seK-respect ; it is more properly the very 
embodiment of coarse incapacity and incii)ient ma- 
levolence. 

Lastly, like the parental government, that of the 
school should be catholic in its spirit and administra- 
tion. Always considerate with regard to individual 
wants, the teacher must, nevertheless, order and gov- 
ern the school for the whole rather than for a part. 
This is his only consistent and safe rule. Some 
things which are individually desirable may even be 
promotive of the general w^elfare. In addition to the 
specific comfort or advantage which they secure, they 
may reflect general credit on the government for dis- 
crimination and kindliness. Other personal provis- 
ions may not noticeably interfere Avith the broader in- 
terests of the whole. Others, again, may, as inter- 
fering with the general regulations, or as establisliing 
subversive precedents, directly conflict with the wel- 
fare of the whole. In aU these cases, the application 
of the principle of catholicity is clear. In the first, it 
fully sustains the propriety of the individual provis- 
ions ; with reference to the second, it is silent ; as to 
the tliird, its voice is a decided prohibition. The 
general law is, then, this ; while, as will be shown 
elsewhere, aU proper discrimination as to individual 
nature or need must be made, the general weKare 
must ever be the dominant consideration. 

Ignorance or disregard of this principle often leads 
parents and guardians into the grave error of de- 



DERIVED CHAIIACTEKISTICS. G7 

manding indiyidiial privileges for tlie child which are 
inadmissible because inconsistent with the good of 
the whole. Tims, for example, an irregular choice 
of studies is demanded for one ; for another, a priv- 
ileged class or seat ; for another, release from some 
prescribed duty ; for another, exemption from some 
specific restriction or exercise of discipline. These, 
while, perhaps, in certain isolated cases possibly unob- 
jectionable, may, and more commonly must, as dis- 
turbing the general order or establishing dangerous 
precedents, be positively injurious. It ^ill, then, doubt- 
less, be the wiser course to prefer no such claims. 
But in case, on mature reflection, they seem desira- 
ble, let them not be pressed upon the teacher against 
his convictions. Let him be left free to act according 
to the demands of cathoKc unity in the school, and 
cathohc rectitude in its government. 

From this, it will be seen, that the teacher, instead 
of acting fi'om bhnd impulse or specific impressions, 
needs to study carefully the economy of his school 
and its system of government, as a whole, so that in 
their clear and full comprehension, he may be enabled 
to prevent any. maladjustment or undue prominence 
of parts, to the disadvantage of the whole. Hence, 
also, his constant effort should be to impress upon 
the mind of the entire school, a sense of its prevail- 
ing unity, and of the rightful predomiaance of the 
general interest over every other. 



CHAPTEK V. 

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT, AS BELATED TO THE SCHOOL AND 
ITS CONSEQUENT CHARACTERISTICS. 

Importance of considering government with reference to its subjects — 
All government to be adapted to those controlled — True particularly 
of school government — School government to be applied to two 
classes, children and youth, more especially to children — More such in 
our schools — Children more governed than youth — ^Too much license 
allowed the latter — This practice reprehensible— ChiM-c7iaracter in the 
school — Method of discussion — Careful classification necessary — Traits 
classified as individual and general — Individual traits classified as inher- 
ent and contingent, mental and physical — Mental characteristics — Act- 
ivity considered — Mischief often a legitimate result of activity — Activity 
must be provided for — Neglect of this in public schools — Objectivity — 
Objective representations necessary — Indirect utility of apparatus — 
Direct application of objective means — Christ's use of this means — 
The objective a means, not an end — Siyontaneity — Effect on observa- 
tion, attention and memory — Inferred laws — Care as to involuntary 
impressions— Suggested particulars— Care in presenting things — Rep- 
etition necessary— Careless repetition injurious— iacA; of method — 
Method indispensable — Government must be systematic— Zn^eZfccf 
ready hut not strong— Inferences prompt but invalid— Explicitness de- 
manded—Principles especially applicable to the child's reason—" Do 
right" an insufficient rule— Practically deceptive— Its only advantages 
— SensiUlities naturally o!a<^e— Child often abused for feeling— Govern- 
ment must be sympathizing and gentle— Feelings to be diverted rather 
than suppressed— Double utility of their diversion— Child sensitive to 
praise and blame — Love of esteem radical and deep — Exceptional cases 
due to abuse — Government must be stimulating, not depressing— Stim- 
ulating kindness especially adapted to the worst cases— Method of its 
application— T7<e child' s purposes fitful — Fitfulness impairs development 
— Increases the teacher's labors — Government must counteract lack of 
persistence— Failure to do this a prevailing defect— Defect aggravated 
by so-called improved methods of instruction— Particularly by the 
exclusive object s,y?>iem— Physical characteristics— Activity or restless- 



RELATIVE CHARACTERISTICS. 09 

ness — Origin both mental and organic — The latter cause more espe- 
cially considered — Exercise to be secured — No fixed rule for exercise 
possible — Common sense on gj^mnastics — Gymnastics restricted in 
their field — Absurd in case of young children — Nature's gymnastics 
superior — These principles applied to girls — Military drill compared 
■with gymnastics — General inference as to kind, and management of 
exercise — ChikVs frame iimnature — Violent usage to be avoided — 
Evils possible — General characteristics contingent on the constitution of 
the school — Mingling of the s&res— Constitutional differences of the tvo 
to be regarded — Influence of these differences increases with age — 
May become the only means of control — Effect of contrasted sex 
between teacher and pupil — Error in instructional organization of 
boy's and girl's schools — Heterogeneousness of pupils — Variety extensive 
and complex — Organic adaptation consequently impracticable — Au- 
thoritative discrimination the only reliance — Discrimination not 
partiality. 

The study of school government as derived from 
that of the domestic circle reveals to us some of its 
original and more comprehensive characteristics. 
But the study of its nature in the opposite direction, 
as determined by the body poHtic to which it is 
to be applied, is equally important as calculated to 
unfold to view some of its more specific and practical 
traits. 

No government, however perfect in theory, can be 
a true and proper government unless, in aU its prac- 
tical elements it is so framed as to be fitted as far as 
possible to the pecuhar character and consequent 
wants of the commonwealth over which it is to be in- 
stalled as supreme. That which is a true and good 
government for an intelhgent and virtuous commu- 
nity, cannot be the same for a body ignorant and 
vicious ; nor can one adapted to the wants of the 
mature, the considerate, and the self-controUed, be 



70 SCHOOL go^t:enment. 

expected to answer as well for tliose wlio are young, 
inexperienced, and dependent on others for both pro- 
tection and guidance. 

Hence, while school government must have its 
fixed original characteristics, it must also possess 
those which are in some sense acquired, that is, 
which must grow out of the character and condition 
of those who are to be subjected to its authority. 

School government, then, as related to the school, 
we find apphed to two classes ; namely, to children 
and to youth, or tliose who have advanced so as to 
stand midway between childhood and early man- 
hood. 

Of these classes, the more prominent must be the 
former, since for several reasons, it is more generally 
apphed to that class. Fh'st, it is quite evident that 
as our schools are constituted, our primary and pubhc 
schools, or those chiefly made up of children, must 
constitute the largest class, so that even though 
their individual numbers may be less, their aggre- 
gate of pupils must exceed that of the youth, or the 
older class embraced in our higher institutions of 
learning. 

Secondly, it is, we think, the fact, though an anom- 
alous and unreasonable one, that the government is 
practically made to be more for the children than for 
the youth of the community ; that is, it is made more 
continuous, systematic, and rigorous for the former 
than for the latter class. Indeed, it is one fault of 
the higher schools, that their government instead of 
increasing its demands with the increased capacity 



RELATIVE CHARACTERISTICS. 71 

and responsibility of tlie 23iipil, tends contrarywise to 
greater irregularity and laxity, in many cases amonnt- 
ing to little more tlian an a23ology for government. 
Indeed, in the management of these youth, according 
to the usages of many of our higher schools, the only 
end directly sought seems to be that of acquired learn- 
ing, the matter of discipKne in training being treated 
altogether as secondary and incidental, — in fact, as a 
sort of necessary evil. The sum of the teacher's anx- 
iety and inquisition is the mere result in recitation ; 
the student's methods and habits of study, matters 
far more important to his after success, are left to his 
own ignorance and unconcern. If the student recites 
the prescribed amount correctly, his work is accepted 
as done, and the teacher's duty as discharged ; and yet 
the student's study may have been exceedingly desul- 
tory and vicious, a thoroughly ragged compound of 
application and skylarking, to the correction of which 
the teacher has given no thought whatever. 

Now, the least that can be said of this lax system 
of controlling the youth in our schools, is that it is 
exceedingly questionable. Instead of this general 
presumption in favor of the teacher's release from re- 
sponsibility for the student's habits, and in favor of 
the student's capacity and disposition for sell-control 
and discipline, it is a question whether it vv'ere not 
wiser to bring these half-grown candidates for future 
lawlessness and misrule, under the same exact disci- 
pline which is meted out to their younger, but no 
more needy, associates. It is a question wliether, of 
the two evils which mark our management of our 



72 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

youth ; namely imperfect government, and too early 
emancipation from what government there is, the lat- 
ter is not the least excusable, and the most pernicious. 
Against the former, human nature might offset its own 
weakness ; but over against the latter, it has nothing 
to place but its own culpable folly and indulgence. 

Finding school government practically apphed to 
childi-en rather than youth, we pass to the considera- 
tion of child-character in the school as determinative, 
in some part, of the character of the government re- 
lated to it. In a former portion of this work, we dis- 
cussed the derivation of school government, and its 
consequent characteristics, in separate chapters. In 
considering, however, its application to children in 
the school, it is practically more convenient and ef- 
fective, to present the facts and inferences together, 
so that the characteristics deduced shall be found in 
immediate dependence on the personal traits which 
give rise to them, and with which they are closely in- 
terwoven. Inasmuch, now, as the field upon which 
we are eutering is somewhat intricate, a close and 
somewhat formal classification of the facts will be 
necessary. Aside from this, the importance of the 
conclusions to be reached, makes a certain degree of 
thoroughness imperative. 

The facts or traits of child-character, to be consid- 
ered in this connection, may be primarily classified, as 
individual and general ; or those which belong to the 
child as an individual, and those which mark the 
children of the school as a body. The class termed 
individual may be further divided into two species ; 



RELATIVE CHARACTERISTICS. 73 

tlie inherent and the coiitingent, — tlie former including 
sucli characteristics as belong to the child's nature in 
itself considered, and the latter embracing those traits 
which have been fastened upon that nature by pecu- 
liar external influences. Without running into the 
trite and, for our purpose unnecessary, threefold di- 
vision of these characteristics, into the physical, in- 
tellectual, and moral, we shall content ourselves with 
distributing them, summarily without definition, un- 
der the two main heads, the mental and the physical, 
and with considering the inherent and the contingent 
together. We are now prepared to enter upon the 
consideration of the characteristics of the child's 
mental exercises. 

Of these characteristics, the first in order, and 
perhaps the most noticeable of all, is activity. 
There may be cases in which the child's mind 
appears to be either sluggish or inactive. This, 
however, should be assumed to be altogether an ab- 
normal condition. In most cases, it can be directly 
traced to physical malformation or debiHty. In 
proper health, mental activity is at once the symbol 
of the health, and the law of the child's mind. Idle, 
it cannot and will not be. Its whole nature revolts 
from it. What is currently stigmatised as mischief, 
is but the perpetual protest of the child's nature 
against lack of proper and sufficient employment. 
So far from being blameworthy for the ingenious and 
indefatigable iaauguration 'of so much of this so- 
called mischief, the child is innocent, and, in the light 
of nature, even praisworthy. He is but exercising as 

4 



74 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

lie best can, tlie powers lie was designed to exercise, 
and through exercise, develop. It is the parent or 
the teacher who is at fault ; and, in censuring the 
child, he stands really self-condemned, for he prac- 
tically pleads guilty to the knowledge of active facul- 
ties, for which he has taken no care to furnish proper 
and sufficient employment. 

The principle to be deduced from these facts, is 
unmistakable. The teacher must, in his management 
of the school, make ample provision for this super- 
abundant activity. It is impossible, othermse, for 
his government to be just. If he leaves the child to 
idleness during any portion of the school session, or 
throws him upon his own resources for proper em- 
ployment or amusement, it will certainly not be com- 
petent for him to hold that child amenable to strict 
discipline, because, forsooth, his seK-applied activity, 
in any part fails to accord with the aims or regula- 
tions of the school. But, inasmuch as it cannot con- 
sist with the teacher's duty or policy to license any 
such discordant acti^dty, it is imperative on hjm to 
provide for it outlets that are both proper and profit- 
able. In the case of the more active and somewhat 
restless minds, this must be a subject of careful study? 
and an object of ingenious and patient effort. In 
this dii-ection, lies one of the gravest faults of our 
public schools, in their treatment of primary pupils. 
Not advanced enough to employ their time profit- 
ably or pleasantly in the study of assigned lessons, 
they are condemned, during the intervals betw^een 
their exercises, to sit in irksome idleness, upon seats 



RELATIVE CHARACTERISTICS. 75 

or benclies which are only adapted to the purposes 
of torture, waiting painfully for tlie next exercise, or 
longing for the coming of the recess. With nothing 
provided for their pleasant emplojanent, — no slates 
and pencils, no alphabet blocks, no picture cards, not 
even scissors and paper, or peas and sticks, they 
might well be pardoned, not only for occasioning dis- 
order, but even for openly revolting against a system 
which seems expressly designed to oppress their nat- 
ural activity. 

A second characteristic of the child's mind, to be 
noted for its bearing on the government of the school, 
is its tendency to ohjedlvity. Things taken in the ab- 
stract, or considered with sole reference to the sub- 
jective idea, are thoroughly foreign to his nature. 
Bring before him the objective form of which he may 
take cognizance through his ever active senses, and 
in which he may see symbolized the inward idea or 
the dry abstraction, and he is at once at home and 
on the alert. The world of sensible forms with all 
their -variety, beauty and mystery, is eminently the 
child's world ; in it, he dwells with li^dng dehght ; 
upon it, his craving mental activity fastens for suste- 
nance ; through it, his perceptions feel their way to 
hidden truths ; and out of its elements, his restless 
though simple and somewhat barbaric fancy is ever 
strugghng to build new combinations of his own, often 
the prototypes of the ultimaie creations of the manly 
imagination. 

Out of this, arises the necessity of the teacher's 
availing himself, as far as is practicable, of objective 



76 SCHOOL GOVERN.AIENT. 

reference or ilkistration, in his presentation of facts, 
principles and relations, in order that the child's ob- 
servation may be attracted towards that which may 
be otherwise abstract or ahen to his thought ; and 
that his attention may be happily aided in its attempt 
to fasten upon, and fix in the apprehension, things 
that must be otherwise vague and unsatisfactory. 

While the common idea is that blackboards, dia- 
grams, maps, and apparatus generally, are only ap- 
plicable to the purposes of instmction, a truer vaew 
discovers in them an important susceptibility of 
appHcation to the uses of government. Certainly, 
just so far as the proper employment of these objec- 
tive instrumentahties meets the wants of the child's 
mind, and absorbs all its activity in the new interest 
created, just so far does it divert his attention from 
unlawdful objects, and forestall his temptation to in- 
dulge in idle mischief or actual disorder. • To one 
conversant Tvdtli school operations, no truism is clearer 
than this ; the more interesting all the exercises of 
the school, the more easy its general control. 

But still further, it is even possible to make a direct 
use of objective means in the administration of the 
government of the school. It is quite within the 
power of the skillful teacher to lead the child's mind, 
by some seemingly remote reference to objective 
facts, to an unconscious admission of principles that 
are ultimately discovered- to have a close and conclu- 
sive personal application. Take as illustrative of this, 
Christ's reference to the tribute-money and his de- 
mand; "Whose image and superscription is this?" 



HELATIYE CHARACTERISTICS. 77 

How readily he elicited the fatal admission that the 
currency in use as legal tender among the Jews was 
of Eoman coinage ! And this granted, how unan- 
swerable the conclusion that the nation, being thus 
confessedly subject, might rightfully be laid under 
tribute ! The consequent duty was thus put bej'ond 
all ca^dl. 

Again, objective allusion or illustration, may often 
be employed to give additional vividness to the ap- 
prehension of truth, and consequently increased force 
to the resultant law. In exemplification of this, let 
us refer again to the same great teacher. Observe, 
how, when his disciples were contending for an idle 
supremacy, he adroitly " took a child and set him by 
him," and then, in the light of this objective lesson, 
proceeded to unfold to them, and to enforce upon 
them, the combined laws of personal humility, mu- 
tual condescension, and child-like obedience. 

"Without further exemplification here, which indeed 
our space does not allow, it is perhaps sufficient to 
refer the teacher to the scripture account of Christ's 
mission generally, as affording some of the finest in- 
stances on record, of both the intellectual and moral 
application of this method. Did his life possess no 
higher claim for diligent and reverential study, its 
value as affording models for the teacher, so sagacious 
and authoritative, might Avell commend it to the earn- 
est investigation of every student in didactics. 

Before leaving this topic, let one other thought be 
carefully impressed upon the teacher's mind, that is, 
that while he is to avail himself of the objective ten- 



78 SCHOOL GO\^RNMENT. 

dencj in the child's mental exercises, he must guard 
against perpetuating it. This objectivity is a primal 
condition of the child's mind ; but it is not designed 
to become a permanent or ultimate state. The facts 
of the outward world, and the exercise of the sense, 
are, of course, necessary to the development of the 
mind and to the uses of temporal existence. But 
there are higher faculties in the soul than the sense ; 
and there is a world of fact within the thought, more 
refined and subtle, but not less real, than the sensible 
creation. The exploration of this field lays the high- 
est claim u?pon the human energies, and the develop- 
ment of those faculties only, can lead the soul to its 
highest triumphs. Hence, in all objective training, 
there should be a constant endeavor to lead the mmd 
from the sensible to the abstract, in order that its 
growth may be steadily towards a profound subjec- 
tivity, (if we may so speak,) in exercise and attain- 
ment. Objective instrumentaUties must be kept 
rigorously subordinate as a temporary means to be 
steadily reduced from their maximum use in juvenile 
training, to their minimum employment in the ma- 
turer discipline of the adult mind. 

We pass from this, to notice the third characteristic 
of the child's mental exercises ; namely, spontaneity. 
Few observing minds can have failed to discover that 
rarely does the child think, feel or purpose under the 
guidance of antecedent reflection, or in obedience to 
dehberate self-controlled conviction. Some imme- 
diate object or incident serves as an occasion for 
those exercises, and determines their direction ; and 



liELATm: CHARACTERISTICS. ' 79 

then comes tlie instantaneous and uncontrolled im- 
pulse, and arouses the faculties to action. And so 
generally is tliis true of all the child's activity, that 
it may be safely afcmed that in his nature, reflec- 
tion is at the minimum, spontaneity at the maximum. 

As a necessary consequence, obseryation, attention 
and memory, in the child, wiU be found subject to 
important modifications. So far as the exercise of 
those faculties is casual and spontaneous, it -^dU be 
found marked by a not unfrequently singular sharp- 
ness and yigor. Whatever has come accidentally 
before the child's mind, or at least in the natural 
track of liis unpremeditated activity, even though 
utterly unobserved by the mature looker-on, generally 
produces a somewhat permanent impression. But, 
on the other hand, whatever is brought before his 
mind for voluntary and controlled observation, atten- 
tion, or retention, is subject to quite the opposite 
result. It will be seized upon by the observing 
spirit with less avidity ; its constiTiction in the atten- 
tion will be more vague and incomplete, and its hold 
upon the memory will be altogether forced and tran- 
sitory. 

From these facts, there may be deduced several 
laws which must be recognized by the teacher in the 
government of the school. 

And here, first, it T^dll be seen that it is not enough 
for the teacher to be watchful as to whatever is di- 
rectly set before the pupil's mind in the ordering of 
the school. It is necessary for him to exercise great 
watchfulness over everything that may appeal inju- 



80 SCHOOL GO\^ENMENT. 

riouslj to this starp thinking spontaneity. The pecu- 
liar yividness and permanence of the impressions 
produced unexpectedly under its auspices, make it 
imperative that objects and facts, principles and ac- 
tions, that may create false impressions, should b© 
zealously sought out and be carefully removed or 
corrected. It is, of course, not possible for the teacher 
to anticipate the existence or counteract the influence 
of all of these occasions of e^il impressions, for it is 
their nature to exist and to operate unexj)ectedly. 
But he should not lack the will to be watchful, nor 
should he stint his endeavor to accomplish all that 
may be practicable. 

All this is strongly suggestive of what has already 
been referred to ; the importance of securing in all 
the external accommodations of the school a predom- 
inance of whatever is comfortable and attractive, and 
hence, naturally productive of refined, happy, and 
grateful impressions. Not less suggestiTe is it of the 
necessity of securing the earliest possible correction 
of such character and example in the leading spirits 
in the school, as must be malevolent in both their un- 
seen and their outstanding influence. And if this, 
then what as to the teacher's o\\m manners and bear- 
ing, and what as to the evident temper of his govern- 
ment ; — what as to these, other than that the same 
jealous watch should be kept over them so as to se- 
cure in himseK an example of whatsoever things are 
lovely and of good report ? In the second place, it fol- 
lows from the laws of the child's exercises as sponta- 
neous, that great care must be taken in presenting to his 



EELATIYE CIIARACTEEISTICS. 81 

mind, matters wliieli call for tlie deliberate and some- 
what arbitrary exercise of observation, attention and 
memory. Always, so far as may be, they should be 
brought forward in some w^ay calculated to appeal to 
his feeling of interest. And if that be to any degree 
impracticable, they should be announced with a dehb- 
erateness, clearness, and positiveness that cannot 
fail to fix the attention and secure their thorough ap- 
prehension. To this should be sometimes added 
such a repetition of that presentation as will leave no 
doubt as to its immediate apprehension, and no ex- 
cuse for any subsequent slips of the recollection. 
There is reason to fear that children, through the 
haste or carelessness of parents and teachers in this 
direction, or, perhaps, through their too ready as- 
sumption of the child's actual reception of the facts, 
are sometimes positively made transgressors, and are 
subjected to consequent punishment, when the al- 
leged fault was simply an induced failure of the in- 
tellect, and not at all a -^dllful trespass upon the 
reason and the conscience. Let it be observed, hovv'- 
ever, that the repetition which is suggestefl as tending 
to prevent this serious error just alluded to, is a thor- 
oughly deliberate and pointed repetition, — a repeti- 
tion with an earnest and well-defined purpose in it. 
Mere idle repetition, that which is ih-considered, hasty, 
and perhaps, confused, is injurious. So far from fix- 
ing the attention upon the matter presented, its only 
practical effect is to induce inattention. The law 
here, is the law of the school in everything else ; what- 



82 SCHOOL GOYERNXEXT. 

ever is not done deliberately and to a definite end, 
is done to little or no good purpose. 

Another of the characteristics of the child's mind 
bearing upon the nature of the school government, 
is irregularity or icant of metJiod. Method is by no 
means a common trait among mankind at large. Of 
the two faults, ignorance of things to be done, and ig- 
norance of a methodical way of doing them, the latter 
is certainly the more universal. In the child, we dis- 
cover the germ of this prevailing e^dl. It is not 
strange that it should be so. It is the natural prod- 
uct of the objectivity and spontaneity abeady no- 
ticed. He whose thinking is determined by the mere 
contingency of objective occasion for thought, and 
whose mind ever follows the unsettled track of his 
own uncontrolled spontaneity, must be unmethodical. 
Method is a subjective accompHshment, and the re- 
sult of disciphne. It must be based upon penetrating 
and self -controlled thought. It must be antedated by 
analysis and classification. These, hov/ever, are ope- 
rations both beyond the cliild's capacity, and contrary 
to his undi^iplined nature. 

But nothing can be clearer than that orderliness is 
indispensable to the harmonious and successful opera- 
tion of the school. Just so far as the teacher can 
secure it, just so far he facihtates his management, 
and lightens the burden of discipline. Quite gene- 
rally too, with the development of orderliness, or reg- 
ularity of method in the pupils of the school, there 
will occur the simultaneous development of easy ac- 
quiescence in the system of control established by t]}e 



EELATR-E CHARACTERISTICS. 83 

teaclier, and spontaneous conformity to its move- 
ments. Nor can tliere be an}" question as to the 
truth of this, so long as common experience testifies 
that it is the wild, impulsive, unorderly nature that is 
forever unexpected!}- running athwart the legitimate 
track of the school order, and introducing some 
errant clash and jar into its otherwise harmonious 
movement. 

Out of these facts grows the requisition that the 
whole ordering of the school should, both directly in 
its methods and requirements, and indirectly as an 
example and an influence, tend to the correction of 
this element of irregularity and disorder in the child's 
mind. Whatever the teacher himself does, and what- 
ever he requires the child to do, should be carefully 
systematized, so that both the pupil's observation 
and action shall lead steadily in the direction of 
methodical habits. This, both the immediate claims 
of the school government, and the ultimate wants of 
the pupil clearly demand. 

To pass from these more general characteristics of 
the child's mind, to those more restricted, w^e may 
remark that in the intellect proper, his conceptions 
and judgments, while rapidly formed, are apt to be 
vagTie and erroneous. From his very impulsiveness 
and disinchnation to severe thought, the child is too 
ready to accept statements on faith, to the entire 
neglect of any search after their certainty, and of any 
examination of the details involved. For similar rea- 
sons, adopting premises hastily and with httle cjues- 
tion as to their soundness, it is quite common for him. 



Si SCHOOL GOVEENMENT. 

iiotwithstanding lie di-aws conclusions with curious 
<lirectness, to reach results altogether deceptive. In 
short, the child's intellect is ready rather than strong ; 
acute rather than comprehensive, and trustful rather 
than searching. 

Hence, it behooves the teacher, in the government 
of the school, to see to it that every principle advanc- 
ed, every regulation proposed, and every considera- 
tion urged, is made thoroughly explicit, and is un- 
mistakably aj)prehended. Equal care must be taken 
to secure that the pupil is not misled by mistaken in- 
ferences the result of his own imperfect procesess of 
reasoning. It is quite possible for the pupil to be 
led through these very errors and misapprehensions, 
into transgressions of rule for which discipline may 
be adjudged necessary, when, after all, the teacher 
may be the original occasion of the whole. 

These principles are especially apphcable to the 
reason in its apprehension of ultimate truths of either 
beauty or virtue. As the child's notions of the beau- 
tiful are essentially crude and barbaric, so also are 
his notions of rectitude. The gaudy and the ghtter- 
ing are to him, the beautiful, more often than the 
subdued, the natural, the harmonious. So also are 
the desirable or convenient more often to him, the 
right, than the just, the worthy, and the benevolent. 
This finds ample illustration in the well-kno-^Ti indefi- 
niteness of the child's ideas as to the right of privi- 
lege or of j)roperty. Indeed, generally in his mind, 
the rational faculty is either in the germ or but feebly 



KELATI\'E CHARACTERISTICS. 85 

operative, and, hence, left to itself, it is by no means 
a safe guide for his action. 

Hence, we are inchned to regard the generahzed 
principle, " Do right," sometimes laid down by teach- 
ers as the sole law of the school, as, of itseK insuffi- 
cient, deceptive and dangerous. That it is insuffi- 
cient, may be seen from the fact that is not in any 
proper sense a law for the school, but only a funda- 
mental principle, the basis for all law. Moreover, it 
leaves the specific applications, which are practically 
the law for the pupil, to his own judgment or reason, 
both of which, as has been seen, are unrehable. 

That it is deceptive, may be seen in the fact that, 
instead of really leaving these applications to be de- 
termined by the pupil, the teacher practically reserves 
that right wholly to himself, inasmuch as he develops 
the general principle into specific rules, as fast as he 
finds occasion in the pupil's dehnquencies for doing 
so. In this light, the so-called law verges closely 
upon an imposition, since, instead of being the sole 
law, it is more of the nature of a temporary device, 
and furthermore, ostensibly endows the pupil v/ith a 
prerogative which is seeming and not real. Thus in- 
sufficient and deceptive, it needs not that we demon- 
strate the danger of depending upon it. 

The only advantage that can result from the pro- 
posing of this principle at the outset are, first, that it 
enables the teacher to defer the promulgation of spe- 
cific rules, until chcumstances seem to present a natu- 
ral demand for them. This enables the government 
of the school to conform itseK to the principle of 



86 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. - 

growth or development, and thus to adapt itseK the 
better to the unfolding capacities of the pu.pils, and 
to the evident wants of the school. And, secondly, 
properly set forth, it makes itseK as a general law, 
appear to be of the nature of a reason for each sj)eci- 
fic rule ; indeed, wisely applied by the teacher, it 
becomes demonstrative of the rectitude of each indi- 
vidual provision. Hence, it should be proposed only 
with these ends in view. 

Passing now to the sensibilities, it is important to 
notice the fact that in the child's nature, these, while 
fluctuating and transitory in their exercises, are yet 
pecuharly acute. How shght the word or tone, how 
seemingly trivial the act or circumstance, that sad- 
dens the young face and fills the eyes with tears ! 
And thus it should be. It is the natural product of 
that delicacy of feeling which is yet a fresh and un- 
w^asted legacy to humanity, fi'om the lost Eden to 
which the child is so much nearer than the man. In 
his normal state, the child must be a creature of 
much sensibility. If he is not found to be such, it 
may be depended upon that his sensibiUties have 
been impaired by malconiormation ; or they have been 
deadened or brutalized -by bad treatment. 

The latter is the more sure to be the case, from the 
commonness of the practice of abusing children for 
giving vent to their feelings. Nothing is more com- 
mon than for their outburst of sorrow to be made 
an occasion of false consolation, or of ridicule ; or 
still more detestably, of angiy crimination. Some- 
times this abuse is visited upon them because their 



RELATR'E CHAHACTEIIISTICS. 87 

outcries are productive of iuconvenient disturbance ; 
or soiuetimes because they create apprelieusion of 
censure ; sometimes even out of pure irritability, or, 
possibly, of intrinsic male'\o.ence. In every case, it 
is unnatural and inhuman. 

From this arises a natui-al demand that the govern- 
ment of the school, while just and fii-m, should always 
be marked by a sympathizing spirit and much gen- 
tleness of manner. Let the teacher sedulously avoid 
that current frigidity and folly which attempt to im- 
pose on the childish con^dction, the belief that the ills 
lamented are unreal; and which would salve the 
wounds of the juvenile sufferer v>'ith consolatory false- 
hood or pitiless stoicism. It is the part of both true 
courtesy and sincerity, to accept fairly the child's 
trials according to the child's estimation of them, just 
indeed, as the teacher would desii'e his own afflictions 
to be entertained in the apprehension of his friends. 
Having done this, let him, without exaggerating those 
ills, or weakly humoring them, both unfavorable to 
the development of true patience and fortitude, pro- 
ceed with mingled tenderness and tact to apply the 
proper remedy. 

In all such cases, the legitimate mode of reaching 
the desired end, is through diversion of thought 
rather than suppression of feeling. As the sensibiK- 
ties were reached before through the intellect, so 
the feehngs, being the after-growth of the thought, 
must be reached again through the same avenue. 
Let the teacher, then, first enter into the feelings of 
the child, in a genuine sympathy, and then proceed 



88 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

adroitly to lead the attention to other and more 
pleasing subjects. Just so far as he can succeed in 
effecting this transfer of the thoughts, (and such is 
the child's volatility that it is not a difficult task to ac- 
comphsh,) he ytHI succed in abating the feelings which 
were the object of his immediate concern. 

In effecting this result, the teacher secures a two- 
fold gain. It is something to have soothed the feel- 
ings of the distressed child ; it is no less an advantage 
to have enshrined himself in the child's heart as a 
true and trusted friend. In this direction, the occur- 
rence of these youthful trials are, if rightly improved, 
golden opportunities for the teacher. Out of them, 
he may develop the sweetest and kindliest regard of 
the j)upil for himseK, and a genuine and effective re- 
gard for his system of control. Thus employed, they 
will quite invariably prove that, in gaining the true 
mastery of the pupil and the school, an ounce of sin- 
cere sympathy, skillfully employed, is worth a j)Ound 
of authoritative disciphne. 

In this connection, it is also worthy of remark, that 
while the child's sense of moral obligation, following 
in the wake of his yet unillumined reason, is by no 
means ready or acute, he is, nevertheless, more or 
less sensitive to praise or blame. Now, it is not 
assumed that the feelings he may evince in this direc- 
tion are purely the product of his moral susceptibili- 
ties. They are more hkely the combined product of 
his constitutional sensitiveness, and his insatiable 
craving for esteem and love. Whatever may be ac- 
cepted as to their source, they are certainly a fact in 



KELATIYE C'lIAlLiCTERISTICS. 89 

the child's nature ; and they possess a power over his 
conduct which cannot but make them an important 
element as related to the goyemment of the school. 

This latter feehng, the child's loye of esteem, is 
2:)eculiarly deserving of notice as one of the most 
deeply rooted in his nature. Seeming to be born of 
his instinctive sense of inferiority and dependence, 
his looking and longing for esteem and love, are hke 
the reaching forth of the apprehensive spirit after 
the token and assurance of that concern in its behalf, 
among the higher and ruling natures around it, which 
may serve it as a sure ground of kindi-ed feehng and 
peaceful trust. Imbedded thus in the very iustiucts 
of the feeble and dependent spirit, it wdU be found 
generally very tenacious iu its hold upon the impulses, 
liageriug about them long after the external aspect 
has been case-hardened by neglect or abuse. 

That there are many children in our schools who 
appear to be comparatively insensible to praise or 
blame, and who appear destitute of the love of 
esteem, is doubtless true. This, however, by no means 
invahdates the main principle. Such cases are ab- 
normal in their character. Some of them are very 
jDOSsibly due to an original moral obtuseness, just as 
there are cases of a constitutional stohdity of intellect. 
But much the larger proportion are solely the hard 
growth of unnatural training at home, — training in 
which the longing for love has been mocked with 
stony-hearted coldness and neglect, and the gi-ateful 
emotions, ready to be warmed into life by the genial 
breath of approval, have been blighted and beaten 



90 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

down by tlie blasts of ridicule, censure or angry 
vituperation. 

Tlie influence of these facts should be to impress 
upon the teacher the importance of guarding the 
government of the school against degenerating, 
through the predominance of ridicule and satire, criti- 
cism and censure, into a mere engine for depression. 
Bather let him see to it that it everywhere evinces a 
delicate regard for the finer feehngs, a watchful desire 
to discover the first traces of true merit, a hearty 
appreciation of the feeblest endeavor to do well, and 
a cheerful readiness to bestow upon the humblest and 
least promising claimant, every just meed of encour- 
agement and praise. In this way, it is possible to 
make the government of the school a Hving and effec- 
tive stimulus, by its steady appeal to the better aspi- 
rations of the child's heart, provoking it " to love and 
good works." 

Especially let it be borne in mind, that this system 
of encouraging appeal to the love of aj)proval and 
esteem is pre-eminently adapted to those who be- 
longing to the hardened class above refen-ed to, are 
seemingly the most incorrigible. This is so, first, be- 
cause of the inherent power of that principle in the 
human heart, of which society every day furnishes 
the most striking examples. TMiat alone has ever 
surely saved the drunkard? The clear, sun-bright 
evidence that he has yet a hold upon some one's 
esteem and confidence, and may regain that of others 
wliich he had fancied to be hopelessly lost. Tvliat 
alone prevents the glad redemption of the pitiful vie- 



EELATIYE CITAIIACTEKISTICS. 91 

tim of seductive wiles? The crushing consciousness 
that a \'i]lamous proscription by a pharisaical virtue, 
has cut her off from ail generous regard or hope of 
re-estal)lislied esteem and confidence. Still further, 
the method referred to is the best for the more vicious 
pupils, because, secondly, it is so entirely opposite to 
■'their experience and expectation, that it, as it were, 
takes them unawares, and upon the side of their na- 
ture least fortified against approach, and therefore 
most susceptible to influence. The truth of this is 
amply illustrated in the history of every reformatory 
effort for the reclamation of abandoned youth. Rag- 
ged schools, schools of reform, industrial schools and 
the like, have everywhere been successful, just so far 
as they have skillfully availed themselves of the child's 
desire of approval and love of esteem. A proper ap- 
peal to those principles has in it the true magician's 
art ; it will disenchant and restore to his better form 
the enthralled victim of demoniac wiles. 

The method to be employed in applying this appro- 
batory stimulus is exceedingly simple. In the first 
place, let the teacher avail himself of the first occa- 
sions, whether real or only seeming, for bestowing 
praise and evincing confidence, and carefully follow 
up each attained success, by judicious but increas- 
ing demonstrations of that character. In the second 
place, where, from the extremity of the case, no 
occasion seems to offer, let him " adroitly create one. 
This he may do by politely appeahng to the child's 
love of activity, or ambition to be helpful (a powerful 
feeling in most children), for some incidental but os- 



92 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

tensibly important aid. Here is, at the outset, an un- 
expected exhibition of confidence wliicli may at first 
puzzle the pupil, but which will ultimately and the 
more surely, because it puzzles him, beguile him like a 
fascination into the bestowment of the required assist- 
ance. This done, the way is open for a kind and 
deferential acknowledgment on the part of the teacher. 
The course is now clear. Carefully repeat the pro- 
cess until the pupil grov/s into the feeling that he is 
of some real value. This efi'ected, you may openly 
and confidentially appeal to his ambition to become 
more useful and v/orthy. The utility and certain effi- 
ciency of this whole process might easily be illus- 
trated by specific cases. Space, however, does not 
allow their introduction here ; and, besides, to the 
minds of many teachers, they will occur spon- 
taneously. 

Passing from this discussion of poiats bearing on 
the susceptibilities, it remains for us to notice one 
characteristic of the child's voluntary nature, and that 
is, the prevailing fitfulness of his purposes ; in other 
w^ords, his lack of true persistence. Eesulting, as 
this does, from the traits already noticed, it is not 
necessary to regard it as a fault, as is too commonly 
done. It is, however, a deficiency, to the correction 
of which the government of the school should be 
carefully adapted. 

And this, first, because unsteadiness, or lack of 
persistence, must always stand in the way of the 
child's best development. Indeed, it might not in- 
consistently be urged that failure to develop a proper 



RELATIVE CHAKACTERISTICS. 93 

persistence is failure to develop the first manly ele- 
ment in the child's mind, — failure to develop in him 
the master-requisite to his future success in the active 
walks of life. This conclusion, all the current max- 
ims of men relative to the power of perseverance 
amply sustain. These all show that while intelligence 
and perseverance are both necessary, the latter bears 
the palm as, single-handed, the better champion. 

But, further, this lack of persistence tends directly 
to increase the demands made on the teacher's 
energies in the control of the school. It certainly 
stands in the way of his readiest attainment of the 
proper object of the school. When, for example, 
the pupil recoils from the determined pursuit of his 
study, he will either fall back on some schoolmate 
for aid, which at once tends to confusion, or he must 
resort to the teacher, in which case, the latter must 
undertake the pupil's work, as his substitute, or he 
must task himseK to bring up the flagging energies 
of the little straggler, and command his faltering 
spirit again to the persistent attack. Or, if in another 
case, the pupil fails through lack of steadiness, as is 
the more common fact, to maintain a course of in- 
tended obedience, either the teacher must give him- 
self promptly to the work of gii'ding up the relaxing 
purposes, or he will have to address himseK to the 
work of administering discipHne in the correction of 
overt transgression. 

Hence, it follows, that while the government of the 
school must recognize this lack of persistence in the 
cliild as a constitutional weakness for which in aU 



94 SCHOOL GOYERNMENT. 

judgments, clue allowance is to be made, yet it must, 
in all its example, influence and requirement, v/ork 
steadily for the counteraction and correction of the 
defect. In order to do tliis, it must, while always 
both properly helpful and hopeful, carefully avoid 
any relaxing of its own demands. It must be itself a 
model of considerate steadiness and inflexibility. So 
too, it must set itseK persistently against all vicarious 
performance of duty. Duties should be judiciously 
assigned, but once thus assigned, by mingled encour- 
agement and quiet demand, they should be pressed 
steadily home upon the pupil for his sole and un- 
flinching performance. 

The failure to do this, we beheve to be a common 
vice in the government of our schools. The conse- 
quence is that no ti-ue foundation is laid in the wiU, 
for steady and thorough scolarship ia the pupil's sub- 
sequent educational course, or for manly decision and 
persistence ia his after business career. And so we 
find perpetuated throughout the community, a fitful- 
ness of purpose, an unsteadiness in application, and 
an entire uncertainty as to the persevering attainment 
of proposed ends, wliich necessitate constant fluctua- 
tion in the currents of society, and ever recurring 
personal failure and disaster. 

This lack of persistence is, we fear, constantly en- 
couraged by the methods of instruction becoming 
every day more prevalent. No thoughtful educator 
can have failed to observe that the entire tendency of 
our assumed improvement in teaching is to simphfy 
books, to elaborate all the processes of reasoning for 



RELATIYE CHAKACTERISTICB, 95 

the pupil, and to made tlie teacher more minutely 
helpful. In short, we are practically running into a 
system of study made easy. Now while it is clear 
that all the difficulty attending the work of learning, 
which grows out of preposterous or ill- adapted requi- 
sition, and needless obscurity or complexity in the 
presentation of truth, should be fully obyiated, it is 
to be doubted wdiether that simphcity or helpfulness, 
which relieves the pupil from close appHcation, earn- 
est thinking, and resolute self-assistance, is anything 
less than a positive evil. There is every reason to 
beheve that, while the youth who emerge from our 
schools may know more, and may be more sharp and 
confident than those of the former generation, they 
will lack that power of persistent appHcation, of in- 
dependent thought, and thorough self-reliance, which 
are only to be developed under the seemingly hard 
but yet salutary discipline of a system which compels 
the pupil to do for himself, instead of leading others 
to do for him. Not that which is the easiest and 
most agreeable, is always the wisest or the best. 

In this connection, a grave question arises as to 
the influence of a too exclusive use of the " Object 
System," so prominently, of late, set forth before the 
pubHc. Involving as it does an almost const :.nt pres- 
ence and prominence of the teacher as the author of 
the derived knowledge, how can it other than insensi- 
bly and surely lead the child into utter obli^-^ousness 
of his own independent acquisitive power and purely 
individual duty ? Always flinging around his attain- 
ment of the conveyed knowledge, the halo of the 



9G SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

teacher's presence, interest, and attractive skill, how 
can it do other than envelop his sohtarj and unaided 
application, with a sadly contrasted cloud of dulness 
and nninterest?. Our own observation leads us to 
the almost inevitable conviction that pupils who have 
been, to any great extent, trained upon this exclusive 
method, may really be quite acute and observing 
as to whatever appeals to the senses, or comes through 
some hving source of presentation, but will, when 
thrown upon books and their own powers of reflec- 
tion, be found painfully lacking in capacity for sober 
and persistent self-apphcation. 

Turning the attention now to those physical char- 
acteristics which the government of the school must 
recognize in the child, and to which it must adapt its 
management and disciphne, we find two that require 
at least a brief notice. 

It needs but httle observation to show that in the 
child, while there is a lack of enduring strength, there 
is a high degree of physical activity ; in fact, in pro- 
portion to his real power, his physical activity is at 
the maximum. So marked is this peculiarity, that it 
may not inaptly be styled the leading characteristic 
of his bodily nature, and the symbol of its proper 
conformation and perfect health. 

This activity may be traced to two sources, the 
mental activity of which we have before spoken, and 
the superabundant vitahty bestowed upon the youth- 
ful> organism. Necessarily, the restless objectivity of 
the child's mind must call for a constant employment 
of his physical powers in ministering to the wants of 



RELATITE CHARACTEKISTICS. 97 

his intellect. Then, too, the child, instead of holding 
the physical powers in abeyance in his thinking, from 
his very impiilsiyeness, commands them into the ser- 
vice of his thoughts, as yehicles of expression. Hence, 
we might almost say, he thinks with his whole body. 
It is thus that the child is natui-allj a pantomimist. 

The more important aspect of its origin, however, 
is found in excess of vitahty as subservient to bodily 
growth. Necessarily, as the child's frame must be a 
growing one, there must be in aU its organic elements 
a vital energy more than adequate to the claims of 
mere sustentation. There must be in them a power 
capable of adding to what is, that which is to be, and 
so, adequate to the building up of the child into the 
man. And as this requires not only accumulation, 
but a growing assimilation, compactness and hardi- 
hood, there must also be the abundant exercise of all 
the maturity and power already attained. Nutrition 
adds, but exercise adjusts and estabhshes. Hence, 
exercise is one of the ruling instincts of the child. 
However much inconvenience, then, this activity may 
occasion to the teacher, it is idle for him to either 
disregard it or quarrel with it. It is a fixed fact in 
the child's nature, and must be provided for. 

Hence, in his management of the school, the teacher 
must see that adequate provision is made for this 
physical want. He should, as far as he can, have a 
care that the confinement of the pupils during the 
daily sessions is not so lengthy or rigid as to produce 
a languor and exhaustion from vv^hich they do not 
readily recover. In the case of the younger class of 

5 



98 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

pupils wlio are not able to study, those of a feebler 
class Yv'iiose tendency is to morbid inactivity, and 
those who are constitutionally over restless and ac- 
tive, he should strive to make especial provision. 
"What these need, however, is not so much specific 
artificial exercise, as release from idle confinement, 
and opportunity for natural amusement. With re- 
gard, then, to all his pupils, the teacher's manage- 
ment must be governed by the general principle that, 
while the child's physical nature must experience 
some natural inconvenience from the necessary con- 
finement and restraint of the school-room, his bodily 
health and development must not be made to sufler 
by allowing that confinement and restraint to be un- 
duly extended or severe. 

Beyond this, no fixed or invariable rule is possible. 
For example, in the rural districts, where the fi'eedom 
of nature is enjoyed, and people are brought up to 
wholesome industry, school children rarely suffer for 
w^ant of exercise. It is abundantly suppHed by their 
home amusements and avocations, their journeys to 
and from school, and the recesses customarily allow- 
ed them during the daily sessions. But in the case 
of the children in the schools of our larger towns 
and cities, whose opportunities for natural, open air 
amusement and development are more restricted, 
greater attention must be given to the matter of arti- 
ficial exercise. But whatever may be the locaHty, 
school, or class of children, the teacher must, to a 
greater or less extent, discriminate for himself as to 
the time, quantity, or quahty of the exercise. No 



EELATI^:E CPIAPiACTERISTICS. 99 

specific rules can be giyen liim. His guide under the 
general law indicated above must be simply sound 
common sense. 

Tbe reference, wliich lias just been made to artifi- 
cial exercise, suggests the importance of raising some 
question as to the utility of gymnastics. And this 
the more particularly, because, reacting from our 
former complete neglect of physical culture, there is 
among our educators, a growing tendency to swing 
to the extreme of making this species of artificial ex- 
ercise everything. That gymnastics, hke military 
drill, have their place and utility, it is useless to 
doubt. For example, given a class of pupils wh© have 
been tramecl in habits of physical indolence and inac- 
tivity ; one precluded by the false feminine usages of 
society from active out-door pursuits or amusements ; 
or one, by absorption in study, made oblivious of the 
physical wants, — given either of these classes, and an 
established order of gymnastic exercises is probably 
the only thing that can effectively supply the defi- 
ciency. Here, their use may be set down as a neces- 
sity ; for, where natural means fail or are fooKshly 
discarded, a resort to those which are artificial is 
inevitable. 

But from this, it is quite apparent that the field 
within which gymnastics as an established mode of 
exercise and culture are applicable, is restricted. In 
the case of the pupils in our country schools, who 
enjoy the facilities for physical activity and develop- 
ment, afforded by rural life and industrious habits, 
and even in that of the childi'en of the laboring 



100 SCHOOL GO\TERNMENT. 

classes of onr larger towns and cities, wlio, when not 
industriously employed, enjoy the wild freedom of 
the streets, — ^in the case of both these classes gym- 
nastics are practically superfluous. What need of 
staves, or rings, or dumb-bells, or Indian clubs, to the 
young " sans culotte" of the streets and alleys, or to 
the farmer-boy, v/ho, in addition to the games of the 
recess and noon-spell, has his mile walk in going to 
and from school, and his " chores to do" morning and 
night at home ? 

This, however, is not the limit of their restriction. 
In the case of young children, their ajDphcation is 
little other than absurd. And this because, with a 

"Vaulting ambition wliicli o'erleaps itself," 

it claims to be a wisdom above nature. Nature has 
indicated with unmistakable clearness, the means by 
which the young child is to secure the physical ac- 
tivity requisite to a proper development of its bodily 
powers. Its own spontaneous vivacity, its own rest- 
less curiosity, its own ever-ready imitation of the 
movements of men, its own insatiable love of asso- 
ciated sports, — these are nature's occasions for exer- 
cise. Through the activity thus secured, she has 
provided for them a means of physical development 
more accessible, more varied, more extensive, more 
practical, more completely pervaded by an intelligent 
interest, and to the cliild, every way more delight- 
some. To all this class, formal gymnastics are a 
forced and unnatural work. Their simple appearance 
under its processes is a continual protest against 



TELATIVE CHAEACTEEISTICS. 101 

these factitious devices. Tbeir difficulty in effecting 
accurate movements, tlieir strained a.nd anxious look 
of attention, and their lack of hilarious interest, show 
that nature's law for the child's exercise is spon- 
taneous and unconscious activity. Now, if the indi- 
cations of nature are worth anything, (and the attempt 
of some modern educators is to make them para- 
mount,) this is the very field where they are most 
clear and decisive. 

Beyond this, we question whether these principles 
should not be applied to another class to whom the 
modern gymnast holds out his exercises as a desidera- 
tum ; we mean to our incipient and precociously de- 
veloped young ladies. Give them open grounds, a 
common-sense attire — one adapted to both activity 
and cleanliness — full liberty of action, and the choice 
games of their brothers, and we verily beheve nature 
would soon evince the superiority of her modes over 
all systems of artificial training. Put into the girl's 
hand the hoop and stick instead of the staff, the ball 
and bat instead of the dumb-bells ; let her run and 
jump instead of striding extravagantly by rule, in 
prescribed dirctions ; get her enlisted in "hide and 
seek," "prisoner's base," or "I spy," instead of twist- 
ing and twirling herseK in unimaginable curves and 
spirals, and depend upon it, the physical development 
will not be found lingering like " a laggard in a lady's 
chamber," but will speedily show itself foremost in 
the field. The only difficulty in the v/ay is this ; 
gymnastics are fashionable ; games for girls, vulgar ! 

It is, perhaps, not improper that some reference 



102 SCHOOL GOVEENMENT. 

sliould here be made to military drill as a means of 
pliysical culture, since, in the minds of many educa- 
tors, it lias come to liold an important place. Of this 
we think it niixj be said, that, whenever it is applica- 
ble, it has its advantages, and is, in some respects, 
superior to mere gymnastics. In the first place, it 
has that moral superiority which is a cardinal vii-tue 
in any exercise ; namely, a recognized end beyond 
itseK, and beyond that of mere bodily development. 
The influence of this to create a sustained and sus- 
taining interest, and to dignify its whole routine, is 
unmistakable. Beyond this, it is impossible for it to 
run into mere conceits or absurel and repulsive exag- 
gerations in movement. Hence, also, its influence on 
the mien or carriage generally, is more manly and en- 
nobling, than it is possible for that of gymnastics, 
with its larger license and purely material ends, to be. 
Lastly, its power to estabhsh habits of implicit obedi- 
ence is necessarily greater, inasmuch as that obedi- 
ence is not merely enforced by the present command, 
but is also fixed by all the associated ideas of the sub- 
lime art to which it is subordinate, and in which that 
obedience is seen to be a beauty and a power. But, 
as was suggested, the application of military drill is 
limited, for it requires numbers, a certain degree of 
maturity, and is altogether a masculine exercise. 

The general inference to be drawn from these facts 
is, that while gymnastics may be employed where 
they are adapted, more attention should be given by 
teachers to the natural means of exercise enjoyed by 
their puj)ils. Hence, the teacher should recognize it 



RELATIVE CHARACTERISTICS. 103 

as one of liis duties, not only to provide proper and 
sufficient occasions for relaxation and amusement, 
but also to pei-sonally oversee the out-door or play- 
house sports (for every school should have its play- 
house) of his pupils. He should do this, in order 
that he may influence them in the choice of their 
games, advise with them as to the conduct of those 
games, secure to all a proper participation, guard any 
against excess, or exposure, or serious accident, and 
provide against the occurrence of injustice or angry 
contention. We beheve that the common neglect to 
perform this super^dsory service is a great mistake 
both as to duty and pohcy. Not only do physical 
evils result from it, but not unfrequently moral com- 
phcations arise, which affect the harmony of the 
school, and, in the end, severely tax its government. 

Eeturning from this somewhat divergent discussion, 
to the child's physical characteristics, it is important 
to notice that, even when healthy or stoutly built, the 
child's fi'ame is not mature or well knit, and that, in 
the majority of cases, it is even slender or positively 
feeble. It is consequently not at all adapted to ex- 
cessive physical effort, or to rough and violent usage. 
Hence, where either of these evils is allowed, serious 
mischances may not only result, but must rather be 
expected. 

This, it will at once be seen, enforces the duty just 
suggested, — that of carefully supervising the sports 
of the pupils. It renders it equally imperative upon 
the teacher to be watchful against roughness or sud- 
den violence in the administration of disciphne. 



104 SCHOOL GO^^RNMENT. 

Notliing is, however, here determined as to the ques- 
tion of corporal punishment. It is only affirmed that, 
if it be accepted as legitimate, it should be adminis- 
tered in such ways as will not endanger the child's 
frame as yet immature or slender. No sudden and 
violent jerking of the pupil or whirling him about the 
room should be tolerated. Either may easily result 
in the dislocation of some joint, the fracture of some 
of the small bones of the limbs, or in the infliction of 
some injury to the spine, ultimately producing weak- 
ness in the back. Nor should any heavy implements 
ever be employed in inflicting blows upon the child ; 
and, above all, no blows should ever be inflicted upon 
any part which, from its direct connection with the 
nervous centres, must be dangerously sensitive to any 
severe shock or contusion. All such treatment of 
the pupil is undignified and brutal. It is simply the 
outbreak of passionate unreason. It is not disciphne. 

Having thus somewhat fully discussed the indivi- 
dual characteristics of the child's nature, as subject 
to the government of the school, we have to turn the 
attention to those which are general, and contingent 
on the constitution of the school. These traits, unlike 
the preceding, must mark the many rather than the 
few, and, hence, require the children in the school to 
be taken into view as a body. 

Here, then, it must be observed that, necessarily in 
the great majority of our pubhc schools, the children 
must be of both sexes. Even were it the better course 
to separate the sexes, which admits of question, in 
the larger number of cases it would be impracticable. 



EELATIVE CIIAKACTERISTICS. 105 

Hence, in these schools, boys and girls must be 
taught and trained together ; and the teacher who 
would govern justly or most successfully, must re- 
cognize this necessity, and adapt his goyernment 
accordingly. 

Bat to do this, he must keep in mind the fact that 
there are distinctions in the character of the two, 
which render a common adaptation insufficient. 
There are specific traits in each, which require speci- 
fic modifications. In the earliest or comparatively 
infantile period, the divergence in these traits is less 
marked, and a common method will avail equally for 
both boys and girls. But as they advance to child- 
hood, the divergence is marked, and demands dis- 
crimination. For example, the boy's nature responds 
more readily to appeals made to his manly am^bition ; 
the girl is more sensitively alive to personal appre- 
ciation and love. The boy will better bear a frank 
and somewhat bluff manner ; the girl instinctively 
craves an approach marked by the sympathizing look, 
the gentle word, and the kind caress. 

And these influences grow severally stronger as the 
two advance to the keener self- appreciation of j^outh ; 
for both then comprehend more clearly the import 
of the teacher's bearing toward them. The boy dis- 
covers in it the distinct and generous recognition of 
his manhood ; and the girl feels in its fine courtes}^ 
and considerate regard, the first dav/n of the homage 
her womanhood may always claim from the true man. 

It is quite possible also for these means of influ- 
ence to become of the first importance, since, vvith 



106 SCHOOL GOVEIINMENT. 

groTvtli in years, the force of mere autliority over the 
mind diminishes. Hence, the feelings just indicated 
in the boy or girl, may come to be the only available 
sources of control. Happy, then, v/iil be the teacher 
who has fixed himseK in the hearts of both, as a gen- 
erous and appreciative friend, — in that of the boy, by 
a hearty confidence in his trustfulness, and pride in 
his manly energy ; and in that of the girl, by a re- 
fined and chivalric attention and esteem. 

A fact, by no means to be overlooked here, is this ; 
that in the exercise of this influence, a contrast of 
sexes between the teacher and j)upil, reduplicates its 
power. Hence, often, a boy, v/ho would be quite in- 
sensible to the confidence or praise of a man, will be 
completely taken captive by the same means skill- 
fully employed by a genial and attractive woman ; 
and, contrariwise, a girl, whose supreme dehght would 
be to contemn and caricature a teacher of her own 
sex, will evince a most considerate and obedient re- 
gard for a preceptor who gives her, by his tact and 
courtesy, the always pleasing assurance that he both 
understands and appreciates her character. Hence, 
it is seriously to be questioned, vrhether a grave mis- 
take is not made in our boys' schools, by employing 
tutors exclusively, and in our female seminaries, the 
corresponding one of placing the pupils almost wholly 
under the instruction and control of lady teachers. 
The natural tendency of this course, we believe to be, 
the perpetuating in the former, of rough manners and 
unamiable passions ; and in the latter, the thorough 
consummation of boarding-school diablerie. 



RELiVTBT: CHARACTERISTICS. 107 

But we pass, in conclusion, to notice the hetero- 
geneousness of the school, as giving rise to contingent 
traits of character, that bear a vital relation to the 
government. As oiu- schools are constituted, it is 
well known the pupils must be marked by the great- 
est possible diversity of age, constitution, tempera- 
ment, character, social condition, and antecedent 
training. Some are hardly past sheer infancy ; while 
others are verging upon manhood and womanhood. 
Some are slender, even to helplessness ; and others 
are hardy and domineering. Some are sensitive ; 
while others are rough and unfeeling. Some are 
ready and versatile ; and others slow and even pitia- 
bly obtuse. Some are burdened with conscious 
poverty ; others are full of pride of position. Some 
have been humored, and perhaps enfeebled, by 
over indulgence ; while others have been hardened 
and almost imbruted by passionate and unnatural 
abuse. And between these various extremes, the in- 
di\idual character may imn through a whole gamut 
of the most perplexing gradation. 

Now, it is quite clear that no government that does 
not in some way, and to a good degree, reach these 
differences, can be either just, merciful, or effective. 
And, yet, it must be quite impracticable to frame a 
government that shall in its organic structure be able 
to effect this object. A sui'face of collective charac- 
ter so tortuous in its coiTugations can not easily find 
any organic whole that will readily touch it at aU 
points. To endeavor then to secure adaptation by 
specific provisions would result in such multiplication 



108 SCHOOL GOYERN:yiENT. 

of details as would destroy all simplicity, intelligibil- 
ity and effectiveness. 

The great want can then be met only by the appli- 
cation, under the teacher's absolute prerogative^ of 
the one principle of authoritative discrimination in 
the application of either requisition or disciphne. In 
'lealing with the individual pupil, as comprehended 
in his condition and character by the teacher, the 
various provisions of his government must be fear- 
lessly suspended or modified according to the case, 
so as to make the pressure, as far as may be, practi- 
cally equal. Hence, fi-om the beginning, the teacher 
should explicitly avow his right and his determina- 
tion to do this ; and the school should be made to see 
and feel, not perhaps the justness of each specific ap- 
plication, that must rest on the teacher's simple au- 
thority, but that of the general principle. 

Nor should such discrimination be charged as par- 
tiahty. While it is not to be doubted that the gov- 
ernment of the school should be comprehensive, that 
is, that it should be a government for the whole, and 
not for a part to the detriment of the whole, nothing 
can be clearer than that to neglect or refuse to dis- 
criminate in behaK of any part according to its natu- 
ral claims, whenever that can be done without injury 
to the whole, is to dispense with both adaptation and 
justice, and make the government the iron engme of 
bhnd theory and arbitrary will. Hence, the teacher 
who exhibits a deference or regard for a thoroughly 
good pupil, which he would not evince toward a vicious 
and disobedient member of the school ; who extends a 



llELATIMi: CHARACTERISTICS. 100 

lenity to a feeble and uncared-for cliild, wliicli lie 
witliliolds from one robust, or possessed of ample ad- 
vantages; who bestows a painstaking kindness and 
labor upon the dull, tlie timid, or the easily depressed, 
which he denies to the ready, the resolute or the for- 
ward ; who allows privileges to the infantile members 
of his flock, w^hich he refuses to grant to the older 
ones ; who, in a hundred such ways, while planning 
for the whole, discriminates for the benefit of the 
parts ; — such a teacher is not partial ; he is simply 
sensible and just. Partiality is discriminating or 
showing favor without, or against, just reasons. But 
discriminating or showing favor for wise and suffi- 
cient reasons, although often thus stigmatized, is no 
partiahty ; it is rectitude. Let the teacher, then, see 
to it that his government is neither from ignorance nor 
fear, undiscriminating ; nor from blind prepossessions 
or prejudices, simply partial. 



CHAPTER VI. 

GENERAL ELEMENTS OF SCHOOL GOVERNMENT IN ITSELF 
CONSIDERED. 

Main theme resumed — General elements classified, as Order and Disci- 
pline—Necessity for the two, common — Order defined and classified, aa 
Arrangement and Management — Arrangement defined — Characteristics 
of arrangement — Simplicity necessary — Befifdteness considered — Rules a 
necessity — School, mechanical as well as moral — System imjjortant — 
Secures harmony — Secures thoroughness — System liable to abuse — 
Must be practical — Specific applications of arranyemeyit — To juvenile 
class exercises — To outside study — To recesses — Management defined 
— Its characteristics — Prorniytness — Evils of tardiness — Causes loss of 
time and confusion — Promptness induces general punctuality — Steadv- 
ness — Fluctuation a prevailing evil — Steadiness produces respect — • 
Creates faith— Cultivates popular stability— i^amest/iess— Promotes 
proper confidence of manner— Creates enthusiasm— Geniality— Ylaxs- 
ure as well as profit of the pupil to be studied— Importance of 
sympathy— Induces a loving regard— Qtciet?iess—'S ot mere sluggish 
unconcern — Quietness fiivors intelligent appreliension — Tends to 
quiet order in the school— Favors proper reticence in the teacher- 
Induces higher respect for the teacher— (y^od uiayiagement 2)romotive 
of general orcZer- Reduces the need for discipline. 

The preceding topics, wliicli were in some sense 
general and i^reparatory, have been already seen to 
be of vital importance. As possessing such impor- 
tance, and yet, as too generally securing only a pass- 
ing notice, it was judged proper to discuss them with 
a good degree of thoroughness. In doing that, some 
points belonging to the main subject were, of neces- 
sity, anticipated, and that at the risk of subsequent 
repetition. Not^vithstanding that fact, they will be 



GEXEFiAL ELEMENTS : OLDEE. Ill 

noticed in what follows, in tlieir proper place, and 
according to the just demands of the occasion. This 
will be considered as fuUj justified by the too com- 
mon neglect of them ; by the new hght thrown upon 
them by their immediate relations ; by their intrinsic 
importance ; and by the necessary claims of our 
w^hole scheme to systematic completeness. 
^ "We pass then, after so much delay, to the consid- 
eration of the main theme, or school government in 
itseK considered. Bearing in mind the fact, as before 
stated, ti),at school government is the proper ordering 
of the organic and individual action in the school, so 
as to secure in the pupils the best possible develop- 
ment of mind and discipline of heart, mth reference 
both to present and future weKare, we proceed to the 
consideration of its 'general elements viewed as those 
distinct parts of the teacher's exercise of his intelli- 
gence, skill, authority and virtue, which make up his 
entire system of control. These we classify under 
two general heads ; namely. Order and DiscifAine. ^^ 
A very common error of the pubhc, and probably 
of a majority of teachers also, is that of regarding 
the government of the school as summed up in the 
discipline alone. This is possibly due to the fact 
that the clisciphne is the higher and more striking 
element, and as such, appeals more forcibly to the 
apprehension of the common mind. Were the esti- 
mate rested upon this comparative superiority, and 
the discipline accepted as simply representative of 
the whole, there would be no particular gTOund of 
complaint. But when it is allov/ed to overshadow 



112 SCHOOL GOVEKNMENT. 

and conceal the other element, the thing is altogether 
inconsistent and injurious. 

For a variety of reasons, both of these elements, 
though in some features distinct, are inseparable and 
alike necessary. That they must be so taken, wiK 
appear from the following facts stated in brief ; their 
general institution and conduct must run quite paral- 
lel ; their perfection must depend on the same exe- 
cutive quahties ; and their facts are, all the time, 
mutually emerging from, or re-acting upon, each 
other. Indeed, nothing can be clearer than that the 
right ordering of the operations of the school must 
bear strongly, both upon the amount of the discipliue 
required, and upon the ease with which it may be ad- 
ministered. Certainly, no ill-ordered school can be, 
without a corresponding multipKcation of offenses ; 
nor can those offenses be corrected without a corres- 
ponding draft upon the power to be exercised. Con- 
trariwise, also, the just discipline of offenders must 
re-act powerfully upon the regular operations of the 
school, makiug the mere conduct of its daily system 
the more easy and successful. The thorough defeat 
of misrule in any school, is the certain triumph of its 
general order. 

By the order of the school, we mean that which 
includes its general system, or which covers all its 
ordinary operations as determined by the teacher. 
This will, of course, include the two subdivisions, 
Arrangement and Management 

Arrangement is inclusive of all that pertains to the 
systematic disposition of the sessions and recesses of 



GENEEAL ELEMENTS : ARIL\NGEMENT. 113 

the school, of its studies, recitations and exercises. 
Of the absohite importance of arrangement, little 
need be said. As being simply the nice adjustment 
of the regular macliinerj of the school, it bears too 
dh'ectly upon its daily running, to be at all obscui'e 
or doubtful in its influence. Nothing can do more to 
secui'e the movement of the -whole machine against 
irregularity, friction or jar, and retardation. Indeed, 
a proper arrangement may justly be styled the better 
half of good management. 

A proper arrangement must be marked by four 
leading characteristics; simplicity, definiteness, sys- 
tem and practicahty. 

First, it must be simple. Such is the defective 
organization of our pubKc school systems generally, 
that, in most schools, any disposition of the daily 
operations will be complicated enough. But that the 
arrangement may not burden the teacher's mind to 
the detriment of other parts of his. work, and that it 
may not, througli any needless cumbrousness, be pre- 
vented from being successfully carried out, it is quite 
clear that it should involve as few parts, and be sub- 
ject to as few rules as possible. Whether the teacher 
is able to reach any ideal, or prescribed model of 
simphcity or not, let simplicity be carefully studied 
and persistently sought. 

"While, however, simphcity is to be a constant aim, 
let it not be secured at the expense of definiteness. 
There should be no vagueness or uncertainty in the 
operations of the school. Purely incidental matters 
may, of course, be left to an incidental or impromptu 



114 SCHOOL GO\'ErtNMEXT. 

adjustment. This will serve to cultivate in the teacher, 
both that quick perception and ready skill which 
are necessary to his perfect mastery of his position, 
and to secure in the adjustment effected, a truer 
adaptation to the immediate wants of the occasion. 
But for everj^hing else, there should be a well-deter- 
mined time and place, otherv»dse the scheme of the 
school \\ill operate somewhat and somewhere to the 
discredit and, perhaps, the embarrassment of the 
teacher, and to the disadvantage or the injury of 
those under his charge. 

From this, it will be quite apparent that rules will 
be necessary. Certainly, the teacher can have no 
fixed or definite arrangement, without laying down 
specific rules for himself ; nor can he expect to secure 
conformity to his OAvn laws of arrangement, among 
his pupils, without laying down rules as specific for 
their guidance. Some educators are accustomed to 
set forth with an ostentatious flourish of supj)osed 
philosophy, the doctrine that the teacher is to make 
no rules for the school, and that he who does it is, 
per se, unfit for his business. As is usually the case 
with superficial thinkers who would be wise over- 
much, they fail to discover one very important fact ; 
namely, that as an organized body, the school is 
mechanical as well as moral ; it has parts and opera- 
tions that must be fixed by positive regulations, as 
well as those which must be determined by moral 
principle. The general law, " Do right," upon which 
these theorists lay so much stress, and which has 
been somewhat carefully noticed elsewhere, even if 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : ARRANGE^JENT. 115 

it answered tlie ends of tlie moral element in tlie 
school, would be utterly absurd if applied to its me- 
clianical operations. For example, sucli questions as, 
where, or in what order pupils shall attend to such 
and such exercises, are questions of scholastic econ- 
omy, and not personal rectitude. They are to be de- 
termined by the judgment, and not by the reason. 
They find then- claim to obedience in the positive au- 
thority of the teacher, and not in the enlightened im- 
pulse of the pupil's conscience. The same is true of 
many other requisitions which will be noticed here- 
after under this general head. 

Again, both for the sake of its owtl perfection, and 
in order to secure various important ends, the ar- 
rangement of the operations of the school must be 
systematic. Some of these have already been noticed 
in the discussion of government as applied to the 
child-nature. Another will be found in the simple 
power of system to reflect the teacher's capacity as a 
practical analyst and comprehensive manager. Fur- 
thermore, system in arrangement favors the sim- 
phcity and definiteness to vv^hich reference has just 
been made. Indeed, it is only through the clear 
analysis which must antedate and determine the sys- 
tem chosen, that the teacher becomes able to simplify 
his arrangement by rejecthag non-essentials, and to 
render it definite by applying rules according the 
relative demand of its various parts. 

Beyond these, system is necessary to harmony both 
in the arrangement and the conduct of the school 
operations. Not until every part is adjusted in its 



116 SCHOOL GOVEENMENT. 

place Tinder the inspiring spirit of true system, can 
the whole become a self-consi'stent unit ; and not 
until tliis pervading imity is attained, can the whole 
movement be secure against possible Mction or con- 
flict. System is thus in the school, as elsewhere, 

"The hidden soul of harmony." 

But to this very harmony, tJiorougJiness, or compre- 
hensiveness is necessary. It is only under the Hght 
of a systematic classification of the facts of the ar- 
rangement, that the whole field stands clearly revealed 
in all its parts, their proportions and relations, so 
that the judgment may determine whether aught is 
wanting to the just completeness of the whole. And 
the importance of this completeness is seen in the 
simple fact that it is the only safeguard against spe- 
cific or incidental legislation, which is always waste- 
ful of power and injurious to harmony. As in build- 
ing, the thrusting of modifications into the original 
plan, always enhances the cost disproportion ally, and 
endangers the ultimate symmetry of the edifice ; so 
is it T^dth the thrusting in of impromptu regulations 
to meet overlooked contingencies in the order of the 
school ; they endanger its consistency, and unduly bur- 
den its movements. While, however, the teacher must 
hold system as essential, he must not forget that it is 
susceptible of abuse. He must not forget that just 
in proportion as it aspires to perfection, it is in danger 
of withdrawing itseK from the conservative influence 
of circumstances, and of becoming consequently alto- 
gether speculative and impracticable. Such a system 
is necessarily unfitted to the wants of our schools, in 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: AERANGEMENT. 117 

which, so generally, stubborn facts both confront and 
confound line-spun theories. It is also the more to 
be guarded against, because under the existing and 
growing passion of education for absolute schemes 
based upon exhaustive analyses, the, perhaps, domi- 
nant and most dangerous tendency of popular educa- 
tion is to swing to impracticable or vicious extremes, 
and not unfrequently, through arcs of oscillation 
either tremendous or absurd. 

Hence, the arrangement of the school operations, 
while systematic, must be practical. While in con- 
stituting it, the teacher may be guided by well-con- 
sidered theory, he must still see to it, that the insuffi- 
ciencies or aberrations of his theory are constantly 
corrected by a careful induction of facts, — the very 
facts wliich his method must meet and master, or 
prove a failure. Better, if need be, sacrifice some- 
what of theoretical perfection than come short of 
practical adaptation. 

As illustrative of what we mean in this connection, 
take the following specific appHcations of the princi- 
ple. In every public school, there are commonly, 
some general exercises in which the larger portion 
of the pupils may engage simultaneously. Eightly 
managed, these are quite desirable, as they serve to 
develop skill and energy in the teacher, and unity of 
feehng and harmony of action among the pupils. 
The studies adapted to such exercises are gymnastics, 
singing, spelling, and reading. Now the principle of 
arrangement, under consideration, requires that these 
should be set apart for the opening or the close of 



118 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

school, for the reason that thej will then least inter- 
fere with individual appKcation to study, the pupils 
having either, not begun their work upon their lessons, 
or having already finished it. So too, of these exer- 
cises, those should be set down for the opening, which 
require the least antecedent preparation, because 
there has yet occurred no time for such j)reparation. 
Still further, those that are most exliausting should 
come in the same connection as the preceding, be- 
cause at that time, the physical powers are most 
fresh and vigorous. 

Again, the training of the juvenile classes in the 
alphabet and reading, the object exercises if there be 
any, and the reading lessons of the larger classes, 
should occur in the early part of each session, so as 
to afford time for the preparation of the various les- 
sons to be recited by those who are mature enough 
to study. Among the first of these, may also be in- 
cluded the recitation of lessons prepared the evening 
beforehand, at home, for the obvious reason that they 
are in readiness, and should be put out of the way of 
the daily study. 

The assignment of those lessons to be learned at 
home should not be made without regard to principle. 
They should embrace studies which the pupil can 
pursue independently to the best advantage, and 
which will require the least transportation of appa- 
ratus or materials, or those which require results in 
writing rather than those in abstract retention. 

In the distribution of exercises or studies between 
the two sessions, those should be assigned to the 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : MANAGEMENT. 119 

morning session, whicli are the least interesting or 
the most severe, since dnring that portion of the day, 
the powers of both the teacher and the pupils are 
most fi'esh and ^dgorons. 

The assignment of the recesses should also be care- 
fully regulated by this principle of practical adapta- 
tion. Nothing can be more absurd than the common 
custom of haying one and the same recess for the 
older and the younger pupils ; for those who can, and 
those who cannot study. The latter should have two 
or three recesses rather than one, for it is Httle other 
than cruelty to compel them to sit idly and wearily 
waiting the coming of the, to them, long-delayed re- 
cess. Of the former class, there are frequently some 
to be found who should almost be ashamed to take 
one recess, as if it were practically an impeachment 
of their power of fixed application. 

The principle of practical adaptation will also raise 
the inquiry, whether the recess should occur precisely 
in the middle of a session, at which time, while the 
pupil has not become fatigued, his mind has only just 
got most closely and vigorously at its work ; or nearer 
the close when his study is done, or is nearly so; 
when he is actually fatigued ; and when a re :ess wiU 
refresh his powers preparatory to the work ci recita- 
tion. 

But we pass from these illustrations of the bearing 
of practicality upon the arrangement, to the subject 
of management. Management is that part of order 
wliich includes all that belongs to the proper conduct 
and complete carrying out of the system of arrange- 



120 SCHOOL go\t:rnment. 

ment adopted. It hence, covers tlie whole of the 
teacher's bearing and action during the progress of 
the various parts of his system, and in carrjang his 
school through them, whether they are sessions or 
recesses, exercises or recitations. 

A proper management must be marked by five 
general characteristies ; namely. Promptness, Steadi- 
ness, Earnestness, Geniality and Quietness. 

First, it must be prompt. Generally in the public 
schools, there is an excess of work, and hence, a de- 
ficienc}^ in time. It is rarely, if ever, the case that 
the teacher is able to carry the whole daily order 
through with sufficient or invariable thoroughness. 
Either all of the parts must be somewhat abbreviated 
or hurried, or some of them must be practically neg- 
lected. Promptness, then, as a means of saving time, 
is indispensable, for tliis saving of time is necessary 
to the perfection of the teacher's work. Hence, the 
teacher must be instant to the time, as the peal is to 
the flash. 

Then, again, tardiness is necessarily confusion. An 
exercise delayed is either an exercise cut unduly 
short, or inconsistently crowded upon its fellow. 
Whichever it may be, the order of the school is out 
of joint, and so far the result is confusion. Not un- 
frequently, too, the first pressure caused by the loss 
of time, throws the teacher into a nervous hurry for the 
whole session, and thus the disorder is perpetuated. 
The only preservative against such hurry and con- 
fusion is promptness. 

Still further, promptness in the teacher operates 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : MANAGEMENT. 121 

botli indirectly and directly to secure punctuality and 
readiness tlirougliout tlie whole school. Of the bear- 
ing of these upon the general harmony and success, 
little need be urged. Prevailing dilatoriness is little 
better than prevailing insubordination. It is the 
necessary concomitant of lack of interest ; and lack 
of interest is lack of order. Hence, it is always safe 
to conclude that unless the teacher's management is 
prompt, his discipline must be defective, if not a 
failure. 

Again, the teacher's management must be steady. 
One of the most common evils in both parental and 
school government is that of constant fluctuation. 
There is no steady and continuous pressure of the 
authority, in the direction chosen, and to the very end 
of a complete attainment. To-day decisive measures 
are adopted and pressed with vigor. To-morrow the 
effort is relaxed, and the preceding policy practically 
contradicted. It may be even worse than this ; 
through fickleness of purpose or love of novelty, the 
old measures or methods may be summarily aban- 
doned, and new ones fitfully introduced in their place. 

One of the necessary results of this unsteadiness is 
loss of respect for him who has the management of 
affairs. Unsteadiness argues either ignorance, lack 
of forecast, or weakness of purpose, any one of which 
is enough to secure the just condemnation of the 
teacher. But, very clearly, the finest attainment of 
order must depend very largely upon the respect 
which the teacher commands. Without that respect, 
he can carry neither methods nor measures to a 

6 



122 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

liappy completion. His sole dependence must be 
mere arbitrary autliority, perhaps what is still worse, 
mere brute force. But however proper these may be 
in their place, wdthout the concurrence of respect, the 
success they may win is half failure. 

Beyond this, unsteady management destroys faith 
in the certainty of things. Few principles are more 
productive of uniform and orderly action among men 
than that of the invariable uniformity of nature. 
Since the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Ma- 
homet must go to the mountain. Nature will not 
change, hence, man conforms to nature. So the reg- 
ularity of natui'e begets regularity in man. Thus, in 
the school, the inflexible steadiness of the manage- 
ment creates among the pupils, unwavering faith in 
the certainty of results, and a fixed conviction of the 
necessity of conformity to the consequent condition 
of things. This is itself order. Order thus begotten 
is habit. And habit is self-controlling. Hence, 
steadiuess itself is power. 

But aside from its direct bearing on the manage- 
ment of the school, this steadiness has a most impor- 
tant prospective influence. As tending to the creation 
of habitual steadiness of action among the pupils of 
our schools, it operates ultimately as a corrective of 
one of our w^orst national characteristics, popular in- 
stabihty. With us, everything, from the action of 
individuals to the gravest matters of national legisla- 
tion, is in a state of constant fluctuation. Violently 
receding from one extreme, only to rush as violently 
to another; up for a measure like a flood-tide or an 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : MANAGEMENT. 123 

iimndation, and then, under the influence of some 
coun'^er excitement, subsiding or ebbing until, in the 
old direction, nothing is visible but dreary mud-flats 
or barren sand-spits ; it becomes a question whether 
"we are really susceptible of becoming stable. This 
much, however, is certain, that if that stability is ever 
to be established as a national trait, its foundation 
must be laid in the individual character as developed 
in the home and in the school. And yet there is 
reason to fear that unsteadiness in management is 
one of the most common and most incorrigible faults 
of both. 

Again, the management of the school must evince 
earnestness. Promptness and steadiness carry with 
them the appearance of mere power, and are, hence, 
liable to give to the teacher's bearing and action an 
air of stiffness and coldness, which can never prove 
favorable to the best development of the young mind. 
This evil can only be countervailed by the presence 
and pervading influence of some heart-principle in 
the management. Hence, it is every way important 
that aU that the teacher does should be characterized 
by thorough earnestness. For more particularly, a 
thorough earnestness always produces in the teacher 
an air of firm assurance that carries to the mind of 
the pupil a full conviction of the teacher's ability. 
Proper self-rehance, or confidence, is itseK a source, 
as well as an evidence, of power. This is eminently 
true of the confidence or assurance begotten of true 
earnestness. But, for the possession of that earnest- 
ness, the teacher's entire business is a continual plea. 



124 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Hence, for the lack of it in his management, he has 
no excuse. 

StiU further., this earnestness on the part of the 
teacher, in all the various exercises of the school, is 
contagious. It passes beyond himself. It flies from 
heart to heart throughout the httle commonwealth. 
It finds and arouses in each a kindi-ed spirit. Up 
springs through all ranks and classes a kindred zeal. 
This general earnestness, or zeal, at once commits 
the whole school to the order which the teacher has 
instituted, and in which he is so deeply and evidently 
interested. In this way, the teacher's earnestness, by 
commanding spontaneous co-operation, redupHcates 
his power and ensures success. 

Partly out of this demand for earnestness, grows 
the demand that the management should be genial. 
That earnestness is supposed to be generous, not 
wrapped up in the attainment of ends concerning the 
teacher alone, but ever looking forward to the wel- 
fare of the pupil as the highest good. A genuine in- 
terest in this latter object will naturally shed over the 
teacher's whole bearing and action in the conduct of 
the school, the hght of a constant and considerate 
good will. Hence, so far as it can be done without 
destroying dignity or infringing upon order, the 
teacher should come down pleasantly to the pupil's 
level, evince a sympathetic feehng for him, and skill- 
fully adapt things to the production of his pleasure, 
as well as his profit. This, by no means argues that 
he should humor the pupil in what is weak or inju- 
rious, nor that he should stoop so far as to mingle in 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: MANAGEMENT. 125 

his rougli sports, — himself a mere hoj among boys. 
But it does imply that he should comfort the child 
when he is in trouble, encourage him in his efforts to 
do well, evince an interest in his amusements, and 
lend him a helpful aid in planning or perfecting such 
as are really wholesome and gleeful. 

The natural uifluence of all this, it is easy to see, 
•Aill be to enlarge the pupil's confidence in the kindh- 
ness, as well as the ability, of the teacher, and to draw 
both together in the bonds of a common and a grow- 
ing love. The effect of such a love is to secure on 
the part of the pupil, a hearty co-operation in all the 
plans of the teacher, and to ensure to his manage- 
ment a perfect success. It is in reaching the sources 
of this love, as will be elsewhere shown, that the 
teacher attains the seat of his highest influence and 
power. 

There is, however, one tendency of high earnest- 
ness which must be guarded against, and the more 
carefully, because the influence of ah. this pressure 
upon the teacher in the direction of perfect manage- 
ment, goes to increase that tendency. We speak 
here of the Habihty of the teacher to a sort of over 
energy in his management, degenerating, perhaps, 
into mere boisterousness. As opposed to this, it is 
demanded that the management be quiet. 

And by this is iutended, not the quietness of 
sluggish unconcern, not the quietness that grows out 
of a fear of trouble, a dishke of labor, or a love for 
the comfortable but debasing recesses of an easy 
ohair. The quietness proposed is not so much con- 



126 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

stitutional or inYoluntaiy, as deliberate. It is the 
quietness of one who has carefuUj taken his own 
measure, and that of the objects he seeks to effect ; 
and who, confident of the end, calmly moves on, Avith- 
out haste, without perturbation, without tumult, 
without violence, towards its attainment. Nor is 
there anything in this which conflicts with the pene- 
trating glance, the firm tone, the animated move- 
ment ; it conflicts only vritli vrhatever is fussy, voci- 
ferous or violent. 

As a result of this quietness, it will be seen clearly 
that it favors the most intelhgent understanding on 
the part of the school, of what is desired, or what is 
being done. All needless noise or parade of energy, 
by distracting the attention, and, perhaps, stunning 
the senses, tends to impair the distinctness of the 
pupil's perceptions, and so stands in the way of liis 
receiving the clearest and most enduring impressions. 

Aside from this, as in the precedmg instances, the 
tendency of the te^icher's manner is to rej)roduce 
itself in that of his jiupils. A quiet teacher may have 
noisy pupils, but it Vvill be because the quietness is 
negative, and is, hence, coupled with positive ineffi- 
ciency. It is, nevGi^heless, the natural effect of the 
true quahty, to rejjress the noisiness so common 
among children. Rightly employed, it is one of the 
most powerful means of securing an orderly silence 
in the school. 

Again, this rational quietness is favorable to the 
exercise of proper reticence, and may even produce it. 
By tliis reticence, we mean a wise reserve in the 



GEKERAL ELEMENTS : MANAGEMENT. 127 

teacher as to the antecedent betrayal or proclama- 
tion of liis intentions or plans, to tlie school. There 
are, as has been stated, cases in which this previous 
announcement of measures, as a means of intelhgent 
understanding among the pupils, and as guarding 
them against unwitting errors, is necessary. But 
the object here, is to guard the teacher against a 
thoughtless habit of gossiping about his proposed 
measures, or of conceitedly flourishing them before 
the school. It cannot but be seen that it adds Httle 
to his credit, to be unable to keep his own govern- 
mental secrets. Besides, any such heedless or ostenta- 
tious parade of his plans much beforehand, leaves no 
room for unobserved modifications in case of diffi- 
culty or disappointment ; it operates directly, by tak- 
ing off the edge of novelty or newly expectant interest, 
to impair their effectiveness ; and it sometimes actu- 
ally leads to graver complications in the matters in- 
volved. A reticent quietness is, therefore, one of the 
finest attributes of the teacher's management. 

As a last excellence, this quiet management tends 
directly to create a higher respect for the teacher. To 
the observing pupil, nothing in the teacher can be more 
suggestive of manly self-control, and of power in re- 
serve. It is easy for him to see occasions enough for 
very natural outbreaks of vehemence in voice, or haste 
and disorder in action. It is easy for lum to see 
how the teacher, by means sudden and startling, al- 
though tending to disquietness and violence, might 
summarily secure the ends he seeks. But when he 
sees all this calmly forborne, and unmoved quietness, 



128 SCHOOL GOVEKNSIENT. 

and quiet immobility still tlie teacher's sole reliance, 
he can not but feel a profound reAxrence for a char- 
acter so self-poised, a.nd an authority so significantly 
reticent. The influence of such a reyerence, on the 
teacher's success in the order of the school, is too ap- 
parent to need further discussion. 

It only remains then, for us, under this general 
head, to urge upon teachers a closer attention to the 
arrangement and management of the operations of 
the school, as a part of their govermnent, eminently 
adapted to reduce the occasions for any uprising 
need of disciphne. It is, indeed, the proper field for 
the fijiest exercise of judgment and tact in the appli- 
cation of the old maxim ; " An ounce of prevention is 
worth a pound of cure." Disciphne is chiefly cura- 
tive : arrangement and management are eminently 
preventive. They are the shrewdest alhes of that 
master-art in the control of the young, — the art of 
counter-diversion, to which, as applied to individual 
cases, reference has already been made. "Wliat is 
true of its power over the child as an individual, is as 
true of its influence on the school as a whole. Hence, 
it is quite possible for the school when ready, either 
from prevailing weariness or general irritation, to 
break out into overt acts of subordination, to be, un- 
suspectingly to itself, swept by some skilful counter- 
diversion, into a new channel or new current of 
aroused interest or restored good feeling. For the 
attainment of such results, the teacher's management 
is responsible. 



CHAPTEK YII. 

GENEBAL ELEMENTS CONTINUED — DISCIPLINE — REQUIEE- 
MENTL\ 

Order and discipline related — Discipline distinguished from order — Dis- 
cipline defined — Elements classified, as Requirement, Judgment and 
Enforcement, or Correction — Discipline as specitically related to 
school government — Requirement dMin{/ulshed—QpeciQc duties of the 
pupil classified ; as, Personal, Associated, and Filial and Scholastic — 
Claims of these self-evident — Requirement restricted — Illustration — 

. Duties required out of school — Offences in transitu — School jurisdic- 
tion limited — Influence but not authority to be employed — Excep- 
tional cases considered— Characteristics of requirement, moderate- 
ness, naturalness, fairness and firmness — Moderateness distinguished 
and enforced — Naturalness distinguished and enforced — Fairness dis- 
tinguished and enforced — Firmness considered. 

In passing to the consideration of discipline, it 
must be premised that it is so closely related to order, 
that it is difficult to treat them so far separately as to 
have no points in discussion common to both. And 
yet, general convenience and the real differences 
that exist in their nature, require them to be thus 
separated. 

But in order that their points of approximation 
and divergence may be clearly distinguished, we shall 
place the two in careful contrast, as follows. Order 
in the government of the school, embraces whatever 
is merely mecham'cal, or organic ; discipline is in- 
clusive of whatever is moral in its nature or ends : 
order has jurisdiction over the field of practical 



130 SCHOOL GOVERXMENT. 

ecoEom}" or convenience ; discipline extends its sway 
over that of personal responsibility or duty : order 
stands upon the claims of positive anthority ; disci- 
pline is founded upon the ultimate principles of rec- 
titude : order regulates the exercise of the faculties 
as all subsidiary to the development of the intellect ; 
disciphne exerts control over the moral faculties, the 
conscience and the will, as determinative of their own 
conditions, or of character. Hence, finally, the grand 
law of order is expediency ; that of discipline is rec- 
titude. Disciphne, in its highest sense, may then be 
defined as the proper control of individual power and 
responsibihty in the school, with reference to the 
higher lav»^s and aims of pure morahty. 

The elements of disciphne, as thus defined, may be 
arranged under three general heads ; the legislative, 
judicial, and executive, and, as thus classified, may 
be specifically designated as ; Requirement, Judgmerdy 
and Enforcement, or Correction. 

In the Hght of this classification, it will be seen 
that discipline, as here treated, while bordering closely 
upon government as commonly understood in the 
state, is only a specific part of government as requir- 
ed for the school. The reason why government in 
the school is thus made more comprehensive than 
government in the state is clear. In the state, the 
maturity and independent capacity of the citizen, the 
necessary variety of his pursuits, and the fi-eedom of 
application demanded, render a fixed and comprehen- 
sive method of action inconsistent, if not impractica- 
ble. In the school as a commonwealth, from the 



GEXEILVL ELEMENTS : r;E(,>UIREMENT. 131 

immaturity and dependence of its members, and the 
necessity for tlie united and harmonious pursuit of a 
specific end, order becomes an essential part of the 
general control, and, hence, must be included as the 
first grand element of the government, as discipline 
is the second. 

Under the head of recjuirement as the first gen- 
eral element of discipline, must be included all de- 
mands made upon the pupil as susceptible of moral 
relations, and subject to moral obligation in the school. 
In other words, whatever the teacher may either posi- 
tively or negatively require as based upon principles 
of morality ; as apprehended by the reason and felt 
in the conscience to be obligatory, — all this may be 
made a matter of disciphnary demand. Eequirement, 
then, covers the whole ground of the pupil's moral 
obligation as a member of the school. 

The specific duties embraced under the head of re- 
quirement may be classified thus : 

1. Personal, or those the child owes to himseK as 
pupil, as, for example, self-improvement : 

2. Associated, or those thepupH owes to his com- 
panions as members of the school ; namely, Equity 
and Kindness : 

3. rnial and Scholastic, or those the pupil owes to 
the parent so far as his commands reach the school, 
and those he owes to the teacher as its ruler, — or 
Obedience and Eeverence. 

Upon these duties severally considered, little need 
be said. The obligation of the pupil to fulfill them to 
the best of his ability is seK-evident. That ho should 



132 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

be a member of the school, necessarily involves his 
hearty co-operation in the eifort of the school author- 
ity to secure his best development and discipline : he 
could not be anywhere associated with his compan- 
ions, much less in the intimate and imjprtant rela- 
tions of the school, without being bound to respect 
the rights and feelings of all : from the duties of filial 
obedience and regard, no place or position can re- 
lease him, much less his membership in the school 
which the parent has pro\aded for the better advance- 
ment of his highest interests : and his obligation to 
obey and reverence the teacher as the specific repre- 
sentative of the p irent, for the time being, and as the 
rightful and necessary head of the school and soul 
of its operations, is founded on the veiy nature of 
things. 

It will be observed, however, that the moral obli- 
gation involved in all these duties, is restricted, as if 
bounded by the pupil's relation to the school. This 
must be of necessity. School government is specific 
in its aim, and limited in its field of application. 
While, then, ethics entire may be proj^erly embraced 
in the instruction given in the school, only such of its 
principles as are distinctly appKcable to the control 
of the child as a member of the school, can be pro- 
perly embraced in its system of government. These 
principles as constituting the body of school etliics, 
are all those which may be consistently noticed here. 

As illustrative of this restriction of school ethics, 
the following specific cases may be taken. The prin- 
ciples of ethics bearing upon " Duties to the Stats," 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : REQUIREMENT. 133 

can liave no place whatever among the requisitions 
of school government ; for, neither is the child yet a 
citizen, nor would the school be held responsible for 
his treatment of those duties, even if the pupil had 
attained his majority. All that belongs to the rela- 
tions the pupil (if he be of age) holds to the state, 
and hence it is altogether within the province of civil 
government. The state, it is true, recognizes the 
school, but surrenders to the school none of its pre- 
rogatives. 

Again, the " Duties to the Parent" belong in gen- 
eral to the domestic relation, and properly come 
under the cognizance of the home government alone. 
It is quite clear, however, that out of the relation 
which the parent holds to the child in the school, and 
out of the relation which the teacher, as his agent or 
substitute, holds to the parent, there may arise spe- 
cific duties to the latter, which the former must re- 
cognize in his government. The parent may, for in- 
stance, with the consent of the teacher, lay certain 
specific requisitions upon his child as a member of 
the school ; and the government of the school may 
claim and enforce obedience to these requisitions. 
The duty of obedience in this case^ while a quasi duty 
to the teacher, is primarily a duty to the parent. 
Such, and such only of the child's duties to the parent 
come within the jurisdiction of the teacher. 

Similar illustrations might be drawn from the duties 
of the pupil to the teacher, to his associates, and to 
himself. It is not necessary, however, to cite them, 
since the general principle is sufficiently clear ; name- 



134: SCHOOL GOVERNMEm'. 

ly, that whatever the duties may be, to fall properly 
under the cognizance and authority of the school 
government, they must both practically come within 
its reach, and must evidently pertain to the facts and 
relations of the school as the commonwealth con- 
cerned. 

This general principle may be profitably applied to 
the solution of the question often raised as to the 
teacher's jurisdiction over the pupil's duties out of 
school, and especially over offences occurring in tran- 
situ. With regard to any school duties required to 
be performed at home, it must be clear that the 
teacher has no original prerogative whatever. His 
right to assign such duties or to enforce their fulfil- 
ment, must rest wholly on an understanding with the 
parent, either tacit ot expKcit. Even in this case, his 
apphcation of authority must be indirectly to the de- 
ficiency evinced by the pupil in the school, rather 
than directly to the delinquency that occurred at 
home. For instance, in the case of lessons to be 
learned at home, it is competent for the teacher only 
to take cognizance of the fault of failure in recitation ; 
it belongs to the parent alone to correct the indolence 
or misappropriation of time at home, which was the 
real offence. 

The question as to offences occurring during the 
the period of the pupil's transition from his home to 
the school, and vice versa, is more intricate. And this, 
for the simple reason that the limits of the school 
jurisdiction are somewhat obscure. But the very 
cause of the difficulty is suggestive of the direction 



GENEEAL ELEMENTS : REQUIREMENT. 135 

in which we are to look for tlie chief responsibihty in 
such cases. We may accept this, then, as a first 
princij)le ; that where the limits of jurisdiction are 
the broadest and most definite, there is to be found 
the. direct responsibihty for the correction of the of- 
fences in question. Any other responsibility in this 
direction, must be wholly conditioned and incidental. 
It needs now no argument to show that only the 
authority of the parent is thus comprehensive and 
complete in its apphcation. The parents' jurisdiction 
over the child, and responsibihty for his conduct, are 
subject to no restrictions of either place or time. 
Not merely within the precincts of the home, nor 
during certain set periods of employment, is the child 
held to the duty of obedience to parental law. It is 
a duty for all time and place. 

But it will certainly not be urged that the jurisdic- 
tion of the school government is thus far-reaching 
and comprehensive. Limited ahko in its object, time, 
and place of action, nothing can be more evident 
than that the application of its authority must find a 
necessary circumscription within corresponding limits. 
Not for the child's general conduct in society, at the 
home nor any more in the highways ; not for his be- 
havior upon hohdays, at morning or at night, nor 
any more during any time not within the immediate 
neighborhood of -the school sessions, can the teacher, 
as teacher, be justly held responsible. The parent's 
authority may rightfully maintain its hold upon the 
child until he comes under the eye of the teacher, and 
within reach of his voice and hand ; but the teacher 



136 SCHOOL GOVEKN^IENT. 

has no right to extend -his riile contrariwise over the 
child until the moment when he passes into the 
sacred precincts of the home, and into the parent's 
presence and power. It is demanding for the less, 
what can only be due to the greater. 

This, however, is not to take ground that the teacher 
may evince a stohd unconcern as to the conduct of 
his pupils elsewhere than within the precincts or the 
l^eriods of the school ; n,or is it taking fi'om him the 
power to do anjiihing outside of those limits, to ef- 
fectively subserve the pupil's welfare and the ends of 
good order. As a citizen and as a friend, he may, so 
far as he can, keep a kindly and careful eye upon the 
pupil's conduct during the periods of transition from 
the home to the school, and vice versa^ and may exert 
aU his influence to prevent the occurrence of offences, 
or to secure atonement for them ; but it is influence 
which he is to exert, and not authority. And not 
only may he do much in this w^ay ; but it is beheved 
that the very regard which he thus evinces for the 
rights of relative jurisdiction vriW add weight to his 
influence, and secure in the end better results than 
would be possible under what must necessarily be an 
arbitrary exercise of power. 

This, however, must not be constnied in any 
sense, as ignoring the possibility of exceptional cases. 
For example, flagrant outbreaks of injurious violence 
for which there is no parental preventive or connec- 
tion, may come to the immediate notice of the teacher. 
Here it may be necessary for him to interfere, and 
the interference may be justified on the gi'oimd that 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : KEQUIREMENT. 137 

arbitrary rule is better than licentiousness. So, too, 
cases may occur in which evil-disposed pupils may 
avowedly take advantage of the supposed absence of 
jurisdiction, to do after school, what the teacher has 
forbidden in school. In this case, the teacher may 
take cognizance of the act as an insolent evasion 
equivalent to quasi insubordination. The case some- 
times cited, of a pupil's playing by the way, and so 
becoming late to the detriment of the school order, 
is not properly an exception ; for while the teacher 
may not claim jurisdiction over the act of loitering 
which was the major fault, the tardiness itseK is an 
immediate and legitimate occasion for discipline. 
The distinction and the method involved in this case, 
will be found applicable in many others, and their 
proper apphcation will enable the teacher to avoid 
the two injurious extremes of arbitrary jurisdiction 
and allowed disorder. 

Having thus defined the proper limits of require- 
ment as a department of the school government, we 
pass to the consideration of its general characteristics. 
These may be enumerated as chiefly four ; Moderate- 
7iess, Naturalness, Fairness, and Firmness. 

The propriety of these characteristics, especially 
as determined by the traits of the child's nature as 
subject to the government of the school, has been 
partially considered under a previous head. It is, 
therefore, only necessary that they should be briefly 
noticed here and more especially with reference to 
their beaiing on the government in itself considered 

By moderateness in requirement, we mean that the 



138 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

teacher should, in all his demands upon the pupil as 
subject to moral obligation, study to avoid severity or 
excess. It is better poKcy for him to fall somewhat 
under the fuU measure of exact requirement, than to 
incur any risk of overgoing it. Aside from lenient 
adaptation to the child's feebleness or imperfection, 
it is far easier to secure the perfect enforcement of 
moderate demands, or if need be, to bring them up 
to the full standard of just requisition, than it is to 
maintain those which have bean strained at the out- 
set, to theu^ farthest hmit, or to abate successfully 
those which have been found to be excessive. In 
school government, as in every other, practical excel- 
lence is to be determined, not so much by the abso- 
lute perfection of the laws, as by their capacity to be 
perfectly administered. 

By naturalness in requirement, we mean, not so 
much naturalness in the demands themselves, as in 
the method of their successive development. It is 
here considered as tantamount to that progressive- 
ness in school legislation, which has been elsewhere 
noticed. The ground consequently taken, is that of 
the inexpediency of pre-enacted codes of requisitions, 
or laws for the moral government of the school. And 
this, for the general reason that no such code can be 
made for any commonwealth, as it were to order, 
and be either wise or just. Law for the government 
of any community, has its grand principles which are 
co-existent with the possibihty of a community. But 
beyond those principles, law is the creature of the 
common need ; and what that need is can only be 



GENE1L\L ELI^MENTS : REQUIEEMENT. 139 

determined by the deyeloping power of circumstances. 
Hence, ail specific lav/s should be, as it were, the nat- 
ural growth of circumstances. So in the government 
of the school, specific rules, to have a natural origin, 
fitness, and power, should be made, only as facts de- 
velop a need for them. Let the teacher pursue the 
opposite course, and Le will burden his system, of 
disciplrjie v,itli minute and ill-digested provisions, 
many of which he will either have to repeal or violate 
as unreasonable or oppressive. This, however, is not 
to be interpreted as contravening the careful promul- 
gation of general principles, elsewhere urged as ne- 
cessary. 

Beyond this, it is demanded that the teacher's re- 
quisitions in governing be thoroughly fair or honest. 
By this we mean, first, that all the means and ends 
of the requirement should be transparently what they 
purport to be. No subject of the school government 
should ever have occasion to suspect that he has 
been misled or overreached by policy or artifice. 
Any such impression will prove destructive to his 
confidence in the teacher, and respect for him ; and 
when those are wanting, authority may compel sub- 
mission, but it cannot command true obedience. 
Again, the requirement should be explicit so as to 
be beyond the possibihty of misconception. Pains 
should be taken, not only to unfold the demand fully 
and fairly, but also to ascertain whether it has been 
as fully and fairly understood. The government 
which, failing in this direction, exposes the pupil to 
unwitting transgression, stands itself impeached as 



140 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

first in tlie fault. Still furtlier, there sliould be no 
sudden revival and application of rules which, having 
lain dormant or lacked recent use, have passed out 
of the pupil's mind, or have been practically accepted 
bj him, as inoperative. All such action will assume 
the aspect of ex jpost facto legislation, and will appear, 
if it is not even what it appears, narrow and unjust. 
The government of the school must then in all its re- 
quu'ements, be thoroughly frank and fair. 

The presence of the foregoing quahties in the 
school government, it will be seen, prepares the way 
for the existence of that firmness without which it 
hardly deserves the name of government. Given, 
requirements which are moderate, the product of a 
natural want, and thoroughly sincere and fair, and 
the teacher may press the demand for obedience, with 
the most inflexible firmness. Nay, in such a case, the 
greater, the more stubborn, the firmness, if we may so 
speak, the liigher the rectitude of the school govern- 
ment, and the more absolute its claim to obedient re- 
gard. It is in the power of this unalterable firmness 
to dignify even the djdng struggles of a bad cause. 
Much more is it able to gather about the upright 
front of righteous rule, the radiant symbol of divine 
excellence. Not only, then, for the pupil's sake, as 
has elsewhere been urged, but for its own, let the 
government of the school, in the firmness of its re- 
quirements, be 

" Constant as the northern star, 
Of whose true-fixed and resting quality 
There is no fellow in the firmament." 



CHAPTEE YIII. 

GENERAL ELEMENTS CONTINUED. DISCIPLINE — JUDGMENT. 



Judgment defined — Importance considered— Elements classified, as De- 
tection, Investigation, Judgment Proper or Decision — Detection dis- 
tinguuhed a7id classified^ as Spontaneous, or Immediate and Mediate, 
or Circumstantial— Kinds distinguished — Spontaneous detection jus- 
tified — Its rules stated— Exevy offense not to be known — Knowledge of 
offenses, not always to be betrayed — Offenses to receive the most 
favorable construction — Mediate detection classified^ as Incidental and 
Concerted — Importance of the latter — Especial difficulty arising from 
the school code of honor — Folly of condemning the code summarily — 
Coxirse to he pursued — Pupils must be taught right views — Severer pun- 
ishment in case of conspiracy to conceal — Rules for concerted detection 
— Must be the sole means of discover}' — Offenses must be of a flagrant 
character — Detection must be prosecuted for no inferior or private 
ends — Grounds of consistency — Detection demanded for the general 
safety — The offense is necessarily covert — It is one of practical out- 
lawry — Method to hepursxied — Detection should be devolved on a sub- 
ordinate agent — Propriety of setting a trap for offenders — Caution 
against seeking personal ends — Against the use of positive deception 
— Against undue exposure of the innocent — Objection to the use of 
temptation answered — Investigation described — Importance of investi- 
gation — Need of attention to practical logic — Logical process in inves- 
tigation considered — Evidence classified, as Personal and Circumstan- 
tial — Kinds distinguished and illustrated — Testimony the chief 
reliance — Confession hy stratagem unwarrantable — Practically dishonest 
— Impairs the teacher's self-respect — Demoralizing to the pupil — 
Particular caution as to the evidence of personal appearance — Requi- 
sites in witnesses — Opportunity, direct knowledge, capacity, veracity, 
freedom from prejudice^Caution as to the testimony of children — 
Kinds of testimony — Simple, Accumulated and Concurrent — Defined — 
General characteristics of testimony — Must be definite, accumulative, 
concurrent — Grounds of strength in concurrent testimony — Logical and 



142 SCHOOL GO\Ti:RNMENT. 

practical illustration — Decision — Defined — Characteristics — Must be 
positive, overt, explicit — General cJiaracteristics of jud(jme7it— Must be 
deliberate, comprehensive^ jighteous and decisive — Popular decisions 
in the school condemned. 



Passing now to tlie second general element in the 
discipline of the school, we observe, that under the 
head of judgment, must be included whatever be- 
longs to the decision of cases inyolving disciphne. 

The importance of this element "will be readily in- 
fen-ed fi'om the fact tliat, not only does the influence 
and success of the disciphne depend on its proper 
performance, but, without its antecedence, no disci- 
pline in any just sense, is practicable. In fact, this 
judgment bears much the same relation to the correc- 
tion of wrong, that the diagnosis of a disease, in 
medicine, bears to the subsequent treatment. De- 
pending upon shrewd intuition and well-defined ex- 
perience, rather than upon rules and authorities, that 
diagnosis is the icork of the physician, — the work 
which most tries and evinces his skill. Indeed, the 
measure of diagnostic accuracy is the measure of suc- 
cess in the treatment. So, we may say, the proper 
judgment of the case in disciphne determines quite as 
fully the course of the subsequent correction ; and as 
such, it is one of the highest and most important 
elements of the teacher's art of governing. 

The elements of judgment may be classified as 
threefold ; Detection, Investigation, and Jndgment 
Proper, or Decision. 

Of these, first, detection is simply the discovery, 
by the teacher, of offenses and offenders. It may be 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: DETECTION. 143 

of two general kinds ; namely, Spontaneous or Imme- 
diate ; and Mediate, or Cii'cumstantial. In the former, 
the teacher comes to a knowledge of the offense and 
the offender, personally and directly, through the ex- 
ercise of mere ordinary vigilance in observing the 
operations of the school : he spontaneously witnesses 
the original act himseK. In the latter species of de- 
tection, the teacher either alone or through his 
agents, in the exercise of some extraordinary scru- 
tiny, reaches a satisfactory knowledge of such related 
circumstances as, to a practical certainty, fix the 
offense upon the offender. This involves the employ- 
ment of circumstantial evidence. It differs fi'om in- 
vestigation, to which it is nearly related, in the fact 
that it stops short of any open inquiry and public 
measures, and, hence, in its operations and results, 
may be wlioUy unknown to the school. 

Of the propriety and importance of spontaneous 
detection, there can be no question. It is clearly 
the duty of the teacher to be always in a position of 
discovery. It is necessary that he should have some 
correct knowledge of so much of whatever transpires 
in his little commonwealth, in the shape of responsi- 
ble action, as wiU enable him to understand fully the 
general drift of conduct in the school, and \.^ill thus 
fully empower him to make proper preparation for 
possible emergencies, and to wisely select for disci- 
pline, such offenses as may have a noticeable bearing 
on the general weHare. 

This, however, is not to take ground that the teacher 
is to be suspiciously on the alert, or always watching 



144 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

for the occurrence of offenses. This is to be vigilant 
at the expense of some of the finest qualities of his 
true character, almost at the expense of his manhood. 
Such a suspiciousness the teacher is, by all means, 
to avoid. It is a vice of weak minds and weaker 
governments. 

Hence, let the teacher carefully observe the fol- 
lowing rules as bearing on spontaneous detection. 
First. It is neither necessary nor Tvdse for him to 
know all the minor misdemeanors, or peccadilloes of 
his reckless, unthinking, and ill-trained subjects, es- 
pecially those of the younger class. A knowledge 
thus minute, will only tend to impair his confidence 
in his pupils, and may thus induce in him a con- 
sciousness of evil character and conduct, calculated 
to affect his manner unfavorably, perhaps even to the 
extent of impairing their confidence in him. 

Secondly. Even if he knows so much, it is all im- 
portant that he should not evince his knowledge of 
it. To do this is practically to compel himseK to 
take judicial cognizance of the offenses involved, since 
hardly anything can be more demoralizing in its in- 
fluence upon the moral sense of a school than a 
teacher's evident neglect of known infractions of law. 
And yet, as many of these offenses may be altogether 
venial and quite destitute of any imi3ortant bearing 
on the general order of the school, for the teacher to 
subject them to discipline, would only be to haiTass 
himself and his pupils with an over government 
hardly less injurious than insufficient government. 
For a teacher to do this, " is wasteful and ridiculous 



GENEKAL ELESIENTS : DETECTION. 145 

excess." Of either extreme, it is better to govern 
too little than too much. Except in the family, no- 
where more than in the government of the school, is 
there need of that noble charity which covers a mul- 
titude of sins, — nowhere so much advantage in its 
wise and patient exercise. 

And, lastly, with reference to all facts which, as 
ostensible misdemeanors, really come to his knowl- 
edge, let the teacher, while retaining them in thought, 
as possibly susceptible of gi^ave but yet undiscovered 
relations, carefully guard against assuming their 
worst interpretation as a foregone conclusion. Let 
him rather, habitually assume the probabihty of a 
faker explanation, and generously hold to that opin- 
ion until it is, by subsequent developments, rendered 
either dangerous or im]Dossible to do so. 

Passing to mediate, or circumstantial detection, 
which has already been defined, it may be classified 
as of two species ; namely, incidental and concerted 
detection. These- rest ahke on the same basis of ob- 
served facts, but differ in the manner of reaching the 
facts. As is indicated by their names, the circum- 
stances involving detection under the former species, 
come to light of their own accord, in the teacher's 
exercise of ordinary watchfulness, and are only volun- 
tarily woven, in his judgment, into a web of satis- 
factory evidence : under the latter species, they are, 
upon pre-determination and by concerted action, 
dragged from their concealment and set in such 
array as effects full detection. 

Of the former species, nothmg further need be 



146 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

urged in this place, since its specific laws are the 
same with those already considered under the head 
of spontaneous detection. Of the latter, distinct and 
thorough notice must be taken both for the reason 
that it is more complicated in its nature, and far 
more difficult in its proper exercise. Indeed, in the 
pre-determined exercise of the function of detection, 
the teacher will find occasion for the employment of 
his largest knowledge of human nature, and his high- 
est skill in dealing with character and circumstance. 
Instances wiU not unfrequently occur, which will, for 
a time, perhaps even finally, baffle his most strenuous 
efforts. 

A special cause for this difficulty is often met ^dth 
in the prevalence of a false sense of honor among 
pupils, wliich leads them to conceal the misdeeds of 
their associates. Sometimes, even where there is a 
better conception of duty, native lack of resolution, 
or fear of retahatory abuse, strengthens the tendency 
to connivance or concealment. In this forced absence 
of the only direct testimony possible, the teacher is 
left altogether to circumstantial indications or the 
developments of time, and wiU not unlikely find even 
these insufficient. 

In cases of this kind, it is altogether idle for the 
teacher to take ground before the school, that this 
concealment is a wrong, and to insist that those cog- 
nizant of the offender's criminality shall expose him ; 
and it is the height of impolicy for him to betray any 
uneasiness or irritation (if he be indeed so weak as 
to allow such feeling) at the persistent adhesion of 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : DETECTION. 147 

the pupils to tlie school code of honor. Nor does 
the fact that there can be no more question as to the 
pupil's duty in the premises, than there is in the case 
of the citizen cognizant of crime committed against 
the laws of the state, mend the matter. The evil is 
the result of a misguided conscience ; and, until the 
teacher can correct the misguiding cause, he must 
be content with the exercise of patience rather than 
justice. 

In endeavoring to correct this evil tendency to 
shield offenders from justice, the teacher may adopt 
two methods. First. He may labor to impress upon, 
his pupils correct views of their relation to the gov- 
ernment of the school, and a sense of their duty to 
sustain its authority as superior to any possible con- 
sideration due to their delinquent companions. Gen- 
erously excusing concealment in the case of a first 
transgression, in which the witnesses have given the 
culprits no warning of the course that must conscien- 
tiously be pursued, he may urge it as due to their 
own manly courage, moral honesty, and just convic- 
tions of the general necessity, that, on any proposed 
repetition of the offense, they shall hold themselves 
absolved from all duty to become particeps criminis 
by shielding wiKul offenders, and shall give the 
same, unmistakable assurance that they wiU be de- 
nounced as such without fear or favor. 

In the second place, in all such cases of conceal- 
ment of flagrant offenses which ultimately come to 
Hght so as to admit of correction, the teacher may, 
upon previous announcement, punish the offenders 



148 SCHOOL GO^-EENIVtENT. 

witli the greater severity, on tlie ground of having 
not only transgressed, but also of having insti- 
tuted a conspiracy against the order of the school. 
He should also, by a distinct withdi*awal of confi- 
dence from the accessories, until their future amend- 
ment becomes probable, indicate his sense of their 
practical disloyalty and paii;ial guilt. This course, 
if frankly explained and firmly pursued, wiU tend to 
produce better views and feehngs in the school, 
with regard to the whole question, and it gives the 
only promise of any ultimate removal of the evil 
under consideration. 

It has abeady been observed that no question can 
be raised as to the consistency of spontaneous, or in- 
cidental detection. With regard to pre-determined, 
or concerted detection, the case is different. Involv- 
ing the exercise of extraordinary scrutiny, extending 
perhaps beyonds the periods and precincts of the 
school, and even involving a species of espionage, it 
is of a more serious character, and not unfrequently 
gives rise to grave and anxious questionings lA the 
minds of earnest and conscientious teachers. The 
position is, nevertheless, here squarely taken, that 
within certain hmits, this species of detection is thor- 
oughly legitimate and necessary. 

The restrictions to w^hich its use must be subjected 
are these. First. It must be resorted to, only in 
those cases in which detection is in no other way 
possible. Detection itself may be a necessity ; and, 
w^hile we may not accept the maxim ; " Necessity 
knows no law," we must urge that, as a general prin- 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: DETECTION. 14.9 

ciple, necessity must be a law imto itself. Hence, 
that detection cannot be a necessity to the weKare of 
the school, Tsathout inToiying the means necessary to 
its accomplishment. 

Secondly. The misdemeanor must be one of a pos- 
itive and flagTant character. It must be of the nature 
of actual vice or crime, and must be clearly demoral- 
izing in its influence upon the school. No mere pec- 
cadillo inTolying the simple occasioning of disorder, 
or only jDroductive of indi\ddual annoyance, can be a 
sufficient warrant. Grave measures are to be insti- 
tuted that can only be countenanced by grave offen- 
ses. Of this class of misdemeanors, perhaps the best 
illustration is to be found in that, sometimes petty, 
sometimes serious theft so painfully common in cer- 
tain kinds of schools. Not only is it illustrative of 
the criminalty referred to, but also of the difficulty 
of detection specified under the previous head. Often 
the vice of pupils from the better families, and the 
direct product of the prevailing social extravagance 
and home indulgence ; infecting not only boys, but, 
sad to say, an older class of girls, who are even worse 
than boys, it is by the very force of family pride, the 
more studiously concealed in, its perpetration, and 
the more dangerous to the teacher in his efforts at 
detection, — so dangerous that its occurrence and ex- 
posure are ahke his terror. 

Thirdly. The detection of such offenses must be 
solely and sincerely prosecuted for no inferior or pri- 
vate ends, but only for the sake of the general w^el- 
fare. It must also be carefully guarded so as to touch 



150 SCHOOL GOVERNIJENT. 

for tlie sake of discipline, only fclie actual culprit. 
For reasons wliich will appear as we advance, others 
who may possibly become involved in its disclosures 
should be proceeded with, only in the way of salutary 
instruction and warning. 

Applied within these limits, the considerations 
which estabhsh the propriety of this concerted detec- 
tion, are brief and positive. First. The moral or 
organic welfare of the school is of paramount impor- 
tance. Crimes so demorahzing can not be tolerated, 
and the teacher is set forth " for the punishment of 
evil doers" no less than " for the praise of them that 
do well." Hence, cost what it may ; strike whom it 
will, the detection of the oifender is no matter of mere 
option ; it is imperative. 

Secondly. The offense is necessarily covert, and 
as such, admits of no other species of detection. 
But it is a recognized principle in criminal law that 
• the capacity of a crime to be concealed so that detec- 
tion becomes difficult or next to impossible, aggra- 
vates its character, and justly operates to enhance 
the penalty. This is founded on the fact that, vrhile 
not intrinsically worse than others, it is vastly more 
dangerous to society. But it is clear that this very 
accession to its dangerous character, renders the de- 
mand for detection the more pressing, and justifies 
all means really necessary to that end. 

Lastly. The act of the offender is one of practical 
outlawry. In its commission, he puts himseK beyond 
any claim upon tlie school government, other than 
that of strict justice, of which the first element must 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : DETECTION. 151 

be 'liis own clear exposure. Besides this, whatever 
means of detection may be employed, tlie culprit has 
no right to complain of them. In the case supposed, 
were he seized under the criminal laws of the state, 
his punishment would be condign. But under the 
government of the school, nothing farther than ex- 
clusion is proposed. The detection that seeks ends 
thus lenient, takes its measure somewhat from the 
limit T;\itliin which it contents itseK. 

With reference now to the means which may be em- 
ployed, two questions arise. Frst. -May the teacher 
institute a course of espionage, or liimseK act the part 
of a spy ? So far as the mere effort at detection is 
concerned, undoubtedly. But if there be taken into 
consideration, the probable ioiluence of such an 
office-Tvork to induce a biassed judgment or a sus- 
picious temper, the wisdom of his undertaking it him- 
self may be questioned. It is of the first importance 
that, as having ultimately to sit in judgment upon the 
offense, the teacher should be kept free from all such 
biassing influences. A mere detective habitually 
assumes the guilt of the alleged offender. The con- 
trary course is imperative on the teacher. Besides, 
as has already been suggested, a suspicious habit is, 
in his case, almost a vice. Hence, it will be far bet- 
ter for him, wherever it may be practicable, to em- 
ploy some other person as his agent in this species of 
detection. If, for example, he has rehable subordi- 
nates, let that work be devolved upon them. And 
this, not at aU that he may escape a painful office- 
work, but because they are not involved in the ulti- 



152 SCHOOL GO^TLRNiMENT. . 

mate responsibility of judgment ; their state of mind 
is by no means vitally important in its bearing on the 
issues of justice ; and they are not exposed to its 
more dangerous reactions. 

Secondly. May the teacher provide an occasion 
for the repetition of the act, imder proper observa- 
tion ; in other words, may he set a trap for the of- 
fender ? We answer, certainly, provided in the first 
place, he seeks the detection of the guilty, solely for 
his reclamation, or for the expurgation of the school. 

Provided, further, he carefully guards himself 
against positive deception or falsehood either overt or 
covert. In yielding to evil desires, the pupil may 
deceive himseK as to the facts involving his detection ; 
but the deception must be his own work, not that 
of the teacher. For example, the teacher may leave 
a coveted book, or a reticule containing valuables, in 
the way of the supposed thief. The fancy of the of- 
fender that he is not observed is his o^vn. He has 
had no assurance that he will not be watched ; nay, 
he is to expect that sooner or later he will be dis- 
covered ; his own caution is a confession of the pos- 
sible danger ; hence, he is only self-deceived. 

Provided again, lastly, that the teacher takes all 
possible care to avoid exposing the innocent to this 
temptation ; or if they chance to be overcome of it, 
that he distinguishes the act carefuUy as a first and 
induced offense, and makes use of it only for their 
salvation from further transgression. 

" But," says the objector, " this is putting tempta- 
tion in the way of others." To this we reply, first, the 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : DETECTION. 153 

teaclier has tlie rigiit, as iii tlie case supposed, to put 
any such articles where he chooses. The school- 
room is his proper domain, and property is presumed 
to be justly safe any^-here ^dthin the school precincts. 
Again, the real temptation hes in the depraved pro- 
pensity of the offender; "He is drawn away of his 
own lust and enticed." Still further, the induced act, 
as leading to his detection, is the only means of rous- 
ing him, before some final and fatal crime, to a sense 
of the peril and certain ruin of the course he is pur- 
suing ; it is the only hope of his salvation. Once 
more, even in the case of the innocent, much the 
same is true. If he can yield so easily to the com- 
mission of crime, his only safety hes in the prompt 
discovery of this liabihty, and the consequent coun- 
sel and warning made possible through it. And, 
lastly, it is quite clear that temptation is not neces- 
sarily an evil. " Temptations," says Bishop Butler, 
*' render our state a more improving state of disci- 
pline than it would be otherwise ; as they give occa- 
sion for a more attentive exercise of the virtuous 
principle, which confirms and strengthens it more 
than an easier or less attentive exercise of it could." 
Were this otherwise, and temptation intrinsically a 
wrong, then the trial of our First Parents in the gar- 
den of Eden, which was practically just as much a 
temptation as any of the acts heretofore supposed, 
would stand utterly reprehended as evil and. ma- 
licious. 

Passing now to the second general element in judg- 
ment ; namely, investigation, we observe that it is in- 



154 SCHOOL GO\TLIlNMEIsT. 

elusive of all that formal examination of the truth of 
facts bearing upon any supposed case of discipline, 
either as determinative of its actuahty or its relative 
demerit. It will be seen fi-om tliis, that it difiers 
from detection, in being always premeditated, but 
without invohdng any concerted scheme of forced dis- 
covery ; it apphes to cases in which a partial detec- 
tion is already attained, which however needs to be 
tested and made complete ; it is formal and open in 
all its processes ; and it attains its ends only through 
logical conclusions resting altogether on the basis of 
evidence. 

These characteristics of investigation, and the evi- 
dent difficulty to be experienced in determining, 
through a logical process, both the actuahty of the 
ofiense and its relative demerit, are at once sugges- 
tive of the extreme importance to be attached to this 
pa,rt of disciphne. Were not this enough, a simple 
reference to the laws and usages of civil courts vrould 
argue the same. All this array of witnesses and jury- 
men ; all tliis careful educing and sifting of testimony ; 
all these elaborate reasonings upon the evidence, and 
all this patient dehberation upon the whole case 
preparatory to the rendering of a verdict, are so man}' 
grave indications of the importance to be everywhere 
attached to the proper investigation of ofi'enses. 
While the extrinsic interest ma}^ be the more pressing 
in the applications of civil government, the intrinsic 
importance to the school, of well-guarded and certain 
decisions under its government, cannot be overesti- 
mated. In the state, an erroneous decision is inju- 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: INVESTIGATION. 155 

rious ; in the scliool, from tlie comparative helpless- 
ness of its subjects, a false judgment is tyranny. 

From tliis, it follows that inasmuch as, in the ad- 
ministration of school government, the teacher must 
be sole jury and judge ; and inasmuch as he be- 
comes himseK an offender if he trusts to the blind 
guidance of mere impressions, or the doubtful reason- 
ings of a crude understanding, it becomes imperative 
on him to possess some consistent knowledge of prac- 
tical logic, at least so far as it involves a knowledge 
of the laws of evidence and the deduction of sound 
conclusions. Hence, not only should a specific train- 
ing in this direction be afforded to the teacher, by our 
normal schools, but a concise treatise on evidence 
should be regarded by him as an indispensable part 
of his library. And this is the more imperative, from 
the fact that throughout the community, so many 
e^dls result from the prevailing ignorance of the very 
knowledge to be derived from such works. What 
those evils are, is patent to every one conversant *with 
the proceedings of our civil, and especially our eccle- 
siastical courts. 

As has been already intimated, investigation, or 
judgment proper, involves a logical process. In fact, 
in every such case of discipline, the teacher has be- 
fore him the proper consideration of the disjunctive 
proposition ; " Either A is innocent or lie is guilty,''' 
which proposition we have taken express pains to 
state, so that it shall conform to that necessary and 
noble maxim ; " Every man should be presumed to be 
innocent imtil he is proven to be guilty," since, above 



156 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

all other adjudicators, the teacher should be most 
mindful of its observance. 

The evidence upon which the teacher is to rely in 
the solution of this proposition, is two-fold : Personal 
Evidence, or Testimony, and Circumstantial Evideoice. 

Personal e^ddence, or testimony proper, as employ- 
ed by the teacher, must be understood in a restricted 
sense, and as embracing only the statements made 
with reference to the offense itself, by his pupils or 
others, claiming to have a direct personal knowledge 
of its occurrence or non-occurrence. This is evidence 
direct and positive. 

Circumstantial e^ddence, as employed by the teacher, 
embraces the statements made by his pupils or others, 
with reference to such remoter facts as do not involve 
a direct knowledge of the offense itseK, but which are, 
in the nature of things, related to it, and which so 
concur in their relation to it, as to find their best, or 
their only explanation in either its reahty or non-re- 
ahty. This evidence is indirect, and may be either 
corroborative, or, in itself, sufficient. It is, however, 
not to be accepted as positive evidence. 

To illustrate this, let X be charged Tvith cutting his 
name on his desk. If it is in testimony that A saw 
him do it ; or that B saw the desk just before X took 
his seat, and it had not been cut then ; B or C saw him 
doing something unlike anything belonging to liis 
proper business, or only like the work of cutting the 
desk ; and B, C or D noticed the name as freshly cut 
immediately upon X's leaving his seat ; — tliis would be 
of the nature of direct or personal evidence. 



GENEEAL ELEMENTS : INVESTIGATION. 157 

If however it is in testimony, rather this, that A 
saw the freshly cut name soon after X left his seat ; B 
or C saw fresh whitthngs adhering to his clothes after 
he left the seat ; D found the point of the knife blade 
broken off in the wood, which point corresponds 
with a broken blade in X's knife ; E found blood 
about the cutting, and X's finger proves to have been 
freshly cut about that time ; these, with the fact that 
it was X's name, or that the carving resembles other 
carving of his name indisputably done by himself, 
and no evidence appears that any one else did, or 
could have any motive for doing the mischief, would 
be of the nature of circumstantial evidence. 

From what has been thus far suggested, it must be 
evident that in the government of the school, circum- 
stantial evidence, elsewhere in the administration of 
justice admitted as affording sufficient proof, ought 
not, except in rare cases, to be received as in itseK 
conclusive. In a commonwealth whose subjects are 
so often weak and helpless, and over whom the au- 
thority is so absolute, probability however strong can 
not afford safe ground for the infliction of punishment. 
Hence, the teacher's main rehance for proof should 
rather be placed upon personal evidence, or direct 
testimony. It is true, in cases of even grave offense, 
it may be difficult, perhaps even impossible, to obtain 
such evidence. Shall then the offender " shove by 
justice ?" Doubtless : so long as certainty in judg- 
ment cannot be attained, discipline must be sus|)ended. 
But the influence of impimity in the commission of 
offenses is evil. Certainly, were such cases the com- 



158 SCHOOL GO\^RNMENT. 

mon rule. They are, however, more likely to be in- 
cidental, and will, to some extent, be counterbalanced 
by the moral effect of an evident determination on 
the part of the teacher, to forego even justice until it 
is competent to stand forth, in its severity beyond 
doubt or challenge. 

In this connection, it is important to caution the 
teacher against an error into which some unhappily 
fall ; namely, that of compassing a confession by 
stratagem. It is sometimes the case that, in the con- 
scious absence of sufficient testimony, the teacher, in 
laboring with the accused, puts on the show of having 
estabhshed the fact of his guilt, in order to produce 
in his mind, a conviction of the uselessness of further 
concealment, and thus to induce an actual confession 
of the fault. This course is objectionable on several 
grounds* 

In the first place, it is practically dishonest. It in- 
volves falsehood by implication. The teacher says 
by his action ; " I know aU the facts. I am fully as- 
sured of your guilt. I do not need your confession. 
I only seek it for its influence on yourself, and its 
bearing on the amount of the punishment." But not 
one particle of this is true. Now the teacher should 
take good heed that he does not attempt to estabhsh 
vii'tue through the iatervention of an immoraUty. 

In the second place, the use of such means cannot 
but impair the teacher's ovm. upright self-conscious- 
ness, and so must naturally tend to destroy that clear 
open sincerity and confidence of manner upon which 
so much of his influence over the school depends. 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : INVESTIGATION. 159 

He who can resort to siicli means, witliout himseK 
wearing the look of a conscious culprit, is either to 
be pitied or detested ; certain it is, that if he deals 
much in such base artifices, he will not long retain 
in as23ect, the fine upright glorj of conscious purity 
and honor. Hence, the teacher may better forego the 
administi-ation of presumptive justice rather than de- 
moraKze himself. 

Lastly, the pupil is not alw^ays so obtuse or simple 
as not to penetrate the deceitfulness of the artifice. 
If he does pry into its hidden secret, an irreparable 
blow has been inflicted upon the teacher's character 
and influence. Even if the pupil does not clearly 
discover the imposition, he will, in confessing his 
fault and being punished, rebel in heart against both 
however just, as having been reached in some way, 
to which he has unwisely and half -inexphc ably al- 
lowed himseK to be made an accomphce. The influ- 
ence of any such con\dction cannot but be injurious. 
The ci\al law wisely relieves the accused from the 
necessity of testifjdng against himself, and not merely 
that he may be saved from the temptation to perjure 
himself, but that, when he is condemned, he may 
the more deeply reahze the certainty of justice and 
the righteousness of the authority. This lesson from 
civil affairs should not be lost upon the teacher. 
Let his discipline wait patiently until it is able to 
stand on its own proper basis — sufficient evidence. 

It remains only to give expression to a caution or 
two in the use of circumstancial evidence, and we 
pass from it. Eegarding it chiefly as a species of 



160 SCHOOL GO^^ERNMENT. 

mere corroborative proof, it is incumbent on the 
teacher always to accept it with great caution, and 
to sift ifc with the utmost care. Especially let him 
be upon his guard against that species of evidence 
supposed to be found in personal indications of con- 
scious guilt. A look of surprise, of apprehension, 
or even of seeming shame, so often taken as proofs 
of a child's guilt, is, by no means necessarily such. 
Nay, in the case of children of a nervous, timid, or 
aspiring character, it may be rather the natural and 
conclusive indication of innocence. Let, then, such 
appearances be searchingly scanned, and be clearly 
discovered to be the foreboding shadow of a clouded 
conscience, before they are allow^ed to fling their 
darkness over the frowTiing judgment. 

Eeverting now to testimony proper, it will be ob- 
served that its vaUdity must rest upon the existence 
of proper qualifications in the witness. A brief state- 
ment of those quahfications will suffice for the present 
purpose. Their propriety will be more or less seK- 
evident. They are these : 

First. The pupil testifying, must have been clearly 
in a position enabling him to be jDersonally cognizant 
of the facts whereof he affirms. 

Secondly. He must claim to have been, and to all 
appearances, must have been, thus directly cognizant 
of those facts. 

Thirdly. He must be of sufficient capacity to really 
know, and to correctly make known, the facts he 
claims to have v/itnessed. 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : INVESTIGATION. 161 

Fourthly. He must be generally accepted by those 
who know him, as properly veracious. 

Fifthly. He must be free fi'om any especial induce- 
ment, fi'om either impulsiveness, interest, fear, or 
personal animosity, which might naturally cloud his 
perceptions, or bias his representations. 

Under this last head, it is necessary to caution the 
teacher particularly against the peculiar tendency of 
the child's hTiste in judgment and vividness of imagi- 
nation, to control his convictions and shape his testi- 
mony. Nothing is more common or natural, than for 
the child, on finding facts leading to a conclusion, to 
overleap, at once, the remaining steps, and assume 
what is really to be proved, and then to create, as it 
were, in his own conceptions, the very appearance 
which he assumes to have witnessed. Any one who 
has observed how perfectly the child's imagination 
effects the most radical transformations in his con- 
ceptions, and the absolute faith in which he will deal 
with the transformation thus effected, as reality, will 
reahze the force of the caution here uttered. While, 
however, the teacher keeps this caution in mind, let 
him not fall into the error and injustice of charging 
such perversion of fact to a want of truthfulness in 
the child. Their source is, as suggested above, in 
the intellect, and not in the heart. 

The testimony obtained from proper witnesses may 
be of three species ; namely. Simple, Accumulated^ and 
Concurrent Testimony. 

Simple testimony is that which stands by itself, 



162 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

and which is unsustained by anything beyond the 
character of the single mtness. 

Accumulated testimony is that which, going beyond 
the single witness, stands ■v\dth other testimony of 
a hke kind obtained from multiplied witnesses. It is 
sustained not only by the character of each witness, 
but by the very fact of its accumulation. 

Concurrent testimony, like accumulated testimony, 
involves a multipHcation of witnesses, and is, like 
that, the stronger for this multiplication. The evi- 
dence involved, does not, however, like that of accu- 
mulated testimony, rest for its verity or force upon the 
character of the witnesses, but only upon their concur- 
7'ence. This is because the concurrence, in this way, 
involves the fact ; namely, if the fact really occurred, 
then such a concurrence becomes clearly possible ; if 
it did not occur, then a concurrence is, as the case 
may be, either not probable or not possible. 

The characteristics of the testimony as a whole, 
upon which the teacher may rest a decision, may 
now be briefly stated. They are as follows : 

First. It must be definite ; not vague or general. 

Secondly. It must to a reasonable extent be accu- 
mulated. Simple testimony should not be deemed 
sufficient to conviction. No more in the school than 
ni the state, should the fate of the culprit lie in the 
hands of a single witness. 

Thirdly. It should be generally concurrent. A 
proper concurrence is in fact the crowning element 
in its strength. This may be seen as follows. 

The grounds of the strength of concurrent testi- 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : INVESTIGATION. 1G3 

mony are twofold : namely, first, tlie impossibility or 
improbability of collusion on the part of tlie wit- 
nesses : secondly, tlie absence of any motives in the 
individnal witnesses, which are adequate to lead to 
the given testimony, without supposing the reahty of 
the fact to wliich they testify. If both these points 
can be established, or if it is impossible to detect any- 
thing to the contrary, the eiddence is valid and con- 
clusive. And this will be so, unimportant differences 
in the individual testimony, to the contrary notwith- 
standing. Nay, so long as there is a clear concur- 
rence as to the main facts, the evidence is really the 
stronger for these divergencies. 

This may be illustrated by a simple formula. For 
example, let the several testimonies be represented 
by A, B, and C ; the main fact by D ; and the unim- 
portant divergencies by e, f, and g. ^e have then 
the following : A = D + e, 

B=DH-f, and 
C-D + g. 

Combining these by addition, we have : 
A + B-fC = 3D + e-hf+g. 

Here it is clear that D, in which there was a con- 
currence, has acquired a threefold strength in itself, 
and so much further importance as is embraced in 
the sum of e, f, and g. 

Even if the divergencies in minor points, are con- 
tradictory, the result is still decisive. Let 
• A==D + e, 
B=:D— e, and 
C=D + f. 



164 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Combining as before, we have : 

A + B + C = 3D + f. 

In this case D's force in itself is reduplicated as 
before, and is still further supplemented by f, so that 
it is stronger for the divergencies, although some of 
them were contradictory. 

To apply this to a practical case. Suppose that, as 
in a previous illustration, X has been charged with 
cutting his desk. Now, A testifies that he saw him 
do it, and with the Httle blade of his knife ; B testi- 
fies that he saw him do it, but with the big blade in- 
stead of the httle one ; and D that he saw him do it, 
did not see which blade he used, but heard the blade 
break, and knows that the point found in the desk be- 
longs to a large rather than a small blade. Here the 
main fact is raised to a threefold certainty ; and the 
certainty is the greater because the divergence in the 
individual testimony evinces intelligence and inde- 
pendence in the witnesses. Nor does the contra- 
dictory divergence of A's and B's testimony impair 
the force of the evidence, since it is every way prob- 
able that both are correct. For it is easy to see that 
C might have first used the smaller blade, and after- 
wards, from fear of breaking it, changed it for the 
larger one, before B's attention was called to the act 
he was perpetrating. 

• Other illustrations might be given, but we think 
the teacher will now be able to apply the foregoing 
principles for himseK. "We have taken the pains to 
develop these logical points so that, in the absence 
of other sources of information, he may have at hand 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: DECISION. 1G5 

euougli to answer any sucli individual and immediate 
want. 

The element in judgment as a part of school gov- 
ernment which remains to be considered, is Decision. 
Decision is the final determination in the teacher's 
mind, of the innocence or the guilt of the accused ; 
and, if the latter, of its relative demerit and proper 
measure of punishment. 

This decision to be valid and complete, must be 
marked by two characteristics ; namely, it must be 
positive, overt and explicit. 

As positive, it must embrace either the one or the 
other result, either that of actual innocence or actual 
guilt. No halfway conclusion should be accepted. 
If the guilt be not established, whatever may be the 
possibilities, assume, as has been before demanded, 
that the accused is innocent. We hold this principle 
to be even more imperative in school government 
than in civil government. 

It is necessary, too, that the decision, when distinctly 
attained, should be pubKcly declared. It is neither 
just to the culprit nor good for the school, that it 
should be allowed to remain delayed or concealed 
and consequently inoperative. The steps of the in- 
vestigation are known : so should be the end reached. 
And the announcement of the decision should be 
prompt and explicit. Any haKway, dilatory, or equiv- 
ocal statement of the teacher's real conviction and 
determination is discreditable to him and injurious 
to the school. Let the teacher, at once, kindly but 
fearlessly render a clear verdict and pass the just 



IGG SCHOOL goat:rnment. 

sentence. Nothing can Tvell be more unreasonable 
and even hateful than the timid or malicious procras- 
tination or prevarication involved in the too common 
announcement ; " I cannot attend to the matter now :" 
or " I will let you know my decision by and by." It 
not only impeaches the teacher's judgment or his 
courage, but it aggravates the pupil's spirit and per- 
haps determines him upon a fiercer resistance to the 
subsequent disciphne. 

From what has thus far been urged, it will be quite 
evident what must be the general characteristics of 
judgment in the government of the school. It must 
be, beyond a doubt, deliberate, comprehensive, rigldeous, 
and decisive. Without proper deliberateness there 
can be in the teacher, neither that air of quiet 
strength nor that evident care to secure even-handed 
justice, which are necessary to his highest influence 
as a ruler. Without such comprehensiveness in judg- 
ment as embraces both sides of disputed questions 
and all the facts bearing upon their full elucidation, 
no teacher can be secure against undue bias, and 
against the ultimate impairing of the general con- 
fidence in the candor and rectitude of his deci- 
sions. And vrithout that prompt and expHcit deci- 
siveness which, after due investigation, brings a case 
to a clear and unmistakable conclusion, his govern- 
ment will fail to command that conviction of its 
strength and determination, which must underlie just 
reverence and impUcit submission. On these points, 
no further enlargement is necessary. 

It only remains to add, that it will be seen that no 



GENERAL ELEIVIENTS : DECISION. 107 

proTision i^'liatever is made for Avliat may bo termed 
popular decisions in the school, — that is decision hy 
the voice of the pupils. This has been for the reason 
that, while it is not denied that, in certain limited 
cases, and for the attainment of minor ends, they 
may be admissible, they are held to be incompatible 
with the true view of the school government as auto- 
cratic ; mth the just duty of the teacher as sole ruler ; 
and with his proper dignity as truly capacitated for 
his place. Any common or important resort to them 
must therefore be either deceptive, or if not deceptive, 
practically absurd, and dangerous. The specific de- 
velopment of this in application must, however, be 
reserved for another place. 



CHAPTER IX. 



GENERAL ELEMENTS CONTINUED — DISCIPLINE — COREEC- 



Correction defined and classified as Preventive and Penal — Preven- 
tive correction defined-^Related to arrangement and management — 
Specific measures — Rewards defined and classified as Consequential and 
Authoritative — Kinds distinguished — General grounds of lawfulness — 
Authoritative rewards of the nature of positive institutions — Desire 
of approval inherent — Abstract virtue beyond the child's comprehen- 
sion — Autlioritative rewards classified as Public Approval, Conferred 
Privileges and Formal Gifts — Public approval corisidered — Its use of sym- 
bols — Requisites to effectiveness — Must be formally expressed — Must 
be protected against discredit — Conferred privileges distinguished — 
Superiority of this class— Classified as privileges of Regard; of Com- 
fort; of Recreation; and of Improvement — Kinds exemplified — Itequi- 
sites to effectiveness — Must obtain the teacher's interest — Must be held 
as resumahlc— Gifts classified, as Gifts of Pleasure and Profit— Kinds 
distinguished and compared— Gifts of pleasure appeal to the fancy or 
the imagination— Superiority of the latter— Gifts of profit classified as, 
affording recreation, real advantage, and aesthetic improvement- 
Kinds distinguished, and worth compared— Grounds of bestowing 
gifts twofold ; as the basis of mere achievements, and of worthy effort 
— The latter siiptrior—JIanner of bestoiomcfit—Mnst be bestowed pub- 
licly—Must evince interest— Must be bestowed with discretion— With 
c?,reful adaptation— Common failure as to adaptation— Bestowed as a 
grace, and not as a compensation— TAe e^-ror of offering prizes— Induce 
mercenary effort— Are not resumable— System of " Demerit Marks" 
deferred to a subsequent chapter. 

We come now to the last of the general elements of 
discipline in school government ; namely, Correction 
or Enforcement. 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : PREVENTIVE CORRECTION. 109 

Correction we understand to be inclusive of v/liat- 
ever means the teacher may employ to secure the 
freedom of the school from offenses against its order 
and welfare. Correction will, hence, naturally re- 
solve itself into two kinds ; namely, Preventive and 
Penal Correction. 

Preventive correction naturally includes all the 
measures adopted by the teacher, to preclude the oc- 
currence of occasions for transgression, or to counter- 
act any positive temptations to wrong-doing, which 
may exist or arise in the school. 

Of these measures, many of the more general cast 
•SNoU be found included under the head of order, as 
previously discussed. Hence, nothing more will be 
needed here, than simply to call the attention of the 
teacher to the fact that whatever he may do to secure 
sufficient employment or proper relaxation for his 
pupils ; whatever he may do to awaken their interest 
or secure their respect ; whatever he may do to make 
his regulations simple, explicit, and reasonable, and 
to render his management animated, reliable, and 
genial, will, while bearing more directly upon the 
order of the school, operate effectively also upon the 
discipline, to prevent the occurrence of either oppor- 
tunity or inducement to the perpetration of otherwise 
unthought of misdemeanors, And thus will the wise 
and masterly ordering of the school serve as admira- 
ble and, to an important extent, effective means for 
the prevention, or precautionary correction, of proba- 
ble offenses. 

But, besides these general means, opportunity may 



170 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

occur for the wise adoption of specific measures not 
definitely provided for in the foregoing suggestions. 
For example, the teacher may find certain contin- 
gencies of location, association, amusement or per- 
sonal feeling, practically offering a premium upon 
mischief or \iolence. Thus, a pupil of a mischievous 
habit may be occupying a seat which so screens him 
from observation as to favor his roguish projects, and 
thus multiplies them. Again, two of a like restless 
and disorderly nature may, by being seated together, 
become the very flint and steel of mischief in active 
contact, fi'om which, " like fire in heather set," 
nothing can be expected but speedy and, perhaps 
destractive, conflagration. Or, a child of feeble and 
}deldiQg natiu^e may be so situated as to fall un- 
der the constant influence or control of a vicious 
boy who will lead him iato e\il he would not 
otherwise have contemplated. It is also quite pos- 
sible for certain sports, in themselves innocent 
enough, to favor the rise of distui'bances which could 
not occur in the case of others that might be sub- 
stituted for them ; or pupils, fi'om antecedent col- 
lision, may be so affected towards each other that, for 
them to be left to go their way at the same time, or to 
get together away from under the teacher's eye, will 
lead to new difficulties. 

In all such cases, the teacher must promptly anti- 
cipate the movements of the enemy, and, if possible, 
flank his position. This he may do, by, for fair rea- 
sons, or without indicating any reasons, changing the 
seat of the secluded rogue, bringing him " to the 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : PREVENTR-E CORRECTION. 171 

front ;" by separating those pupils whose influence 
on each other will be detrimental ; by directing the 
school amusements into better channels, and by 
shrewdly preventing communication or simultaneous 
and unobserved movements on the part of bellige- 
rents. No detailed directions can be given him for 
effecting these objects successfully. The method 
must be his o^^ti, to be either legitimate or effective. 

A still more important preventive means of cor- 
recting the possible occurrence of offenses, must be 
found in the right use of reicards^ns a stimulus to 
apphcation and obedience. 

Under the term rewards, we include whatever of 
either pleasure or profit, a person may, fi'om either 
the constitution of things, or the positive provisions 
of authority, attain or win for his obedience or well- 
doing. Rewards may hence be classified under two 
general heads ; Consequential Reicards and Authorita- 
tive Bewards. 

Consequential rewa rds are such personal benefits 
in either condition of body, state of mind, or asso- 
ciated relations, as naturallj^ follow a course of action 
accordant with the laws of tilings. Thus, he who is 
frugal in his fare and temperate in his habits, is re- 
warded Vvdth sound health and physical comfort ; he 
who obeys the laws of rectitude, is blessed with an 
approving conscience and a mind at rest ; and he who 
conducts himseK with uniform fidelity and good will, 
wins the confidence and co-operation of others in his 
own behalf. All such rewards are commonly regard- 
ed as the consequences of right action, and, hence, are 



172 8CH00L GO^TRNSIENT. 

considered as rewards only in a restricted sense. 
This is due to (lie fact tliat thej are the original and 
invariable results attached to primal and universal 
laws, the institution of which is so far removed from 
our knowledge, that the whole appears in our con- 
sciousness, not so much the product of authority, 
(which it none the less is,) as the mere spontaneous 
ongoing of cause and effect. 

Authoritative rewards are such favors or benefits 
bodily, mental or social, as are bestov/ed in the right- 
ful exercise of atfthority by the higher power, upon 
those who are judged as especially meritorious, gen- 
erally, as meritorious beyond anything attaching to 
the naked performance of exj)ress dut}'. This species 
embraces those rcAvards commonly understood as such, 
and it is concerning the use of these in the school 
that there arises so much dispute among teachers, 
resulting simply in the unfortunate confusion of many 
minds, and the practical waste of much logic. 

Of the proper use of rewards in school government, 
as elsewhere, it is thoroughly certain that it is legiti- 
mate, and that, whether that be admitted or not, no 
efforts to the contrary will avail under the present 
constitution of things, to discharge it from its prac- 
tical place and power among the elements of human 
influence and control. And this, for the following 
reasons. 

First. Authoritative rewards are of the nature of 
positive institutions, or those institutions which, while 
they do not arise in the line, and under the laws of 
natural cause and effect, and are not, therefore, ne- 



GENEEAL ELEMENTS : rKEVENTIVE COKKECTION. 173 

cessaiy to the existence or operation of things as 
originally constituted, are still neither contradictory 
to that original constitution of things, nor in any- 
wise dispensable under its present modifications 
and necessities, but are the clear practical product 
of a potent and provident authority which, through 
them, rightfully meets and satisfies existing and other- 
wise unmanageable emergencies in the operation of 
the moral system. Of this nature, are all such insti- 
tutions as the church, civil goyernment, even the 
school organization itself ; and also all such regula- 
tions, as laws of marriage, laws of contracts, rules 
for political action, rules for judicial trial, and penal 
statutes ; and until aU these, evidently not necessary 
under the original constitution of things, nor neces- 
sarily related to the natural operations of cause and 
effect, can be abrogated, the institution and use of 
rewards stands with them, immovable. 

Secondly. The desire of approval for well-doing 
finds a.n ultimate and steadfast foothold in the very 
nature of the moral susceptibility. Until the spiilt 
be constituted so as to abjure all claim for approval, 
and the conscience shaU no longer assume the power 
of " accusing or else excusing" the moral agent, the 
desire for rewards, and the impulse to bestow them, 
must remain imbedded in the first instincts of our 
nature. For what is a gift or a reward, other than 
an outward and substantial symbohzing of the in- 
ward approval of the course pursued or the act per- 
formed? Hence, always, the natural prompting of 
the highest satisfaction, gratitude or love, is to get 



174 SCHOOL GOYERNMENT. 

out of mere fleeting looks or works, and into a some- 
tliing more tangible and enduring, tliat, in its pos- 
sessed and treasured substance, shall seem to set 
forth more fully the power of the inward affection, 
and shall, when the personal exhibition of that affec- 
tion has passed away, stand out clear and impressive 
before the sense, as its hallowed monument. 

Thirdly. Whatever may be possible in the mature 
man, in the line of that subUme abstraction, " virtue 
is its own reward," the child is neither equal to such 
abstractions, nor are they demanded of him. They 
may, it is true, be gradually wrought by instruction 
into the body of his thought, for the sake of their 
ultimate effect on his principles as a man. Bufc, em- 
braced as he is, in a world of perceived realities, and 
only capable of attaining the subtler ideals by pas- 
sing to them through the fine gradations of a pro- 
gressively reduced and sublimated reality, it is absurd 
and tyrannous to rob him of the stimulus, guidance 
and aid of proper rewards as outward reahties fore- 
shadowing the ideal of absolute virtue, and rendering 
possible both its conception and attainment. 

On these grounds, then, we hold the use of rewards 
to be legitimate and necessary, and regard the ob- 
jections commonly urged, as only vahd when applied 
to their misapphcation or abuse. That such abuse 
is quite possible and, indeed, too common, Vv^e readily 
admit. Some notice of this abuse may be taken 
hereafter. But it is sufficient, here, to urge that the 
abuse of a thing,. so far from demanding its condem- 
nation, is often indicative of a higher excellence in 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: PREVENTIVE CORRECTION. 175 

its proper use, since, as Lutlier has remarked : " The 
best of God's blessings are often the worst abused." 

Authoritative or positive rewards, as thus recog- 
nized, may be distributed into three kinds : Public 
Approval, Conferred Privileges, and Formal Gifts. 

Bj public approval, we mean snch a marked re- 
cognition of merit, before the whole school, as dis- 
tinguishes the pupil from his fellows, and declares 
him to be worthy of general esteem and imitation. 
In the state, it finds its parallel in the dehberate 
vote of thanks, or the decree that the ^citizen has 
deserved well of the commonwealth.' 

As in the state, such public commendation may be 
accompanied by some tangible symbol, such as medals, 
badges, or decorations ; so in the school, the teacher 
may make effective use of corresponding means for 
giving to his pubhc approval of the pupil's course, a 
sensible and permanent manifestation. In the case 
of the larger number of pupils, some such badge or 
symbol is almost necessary to a full appreciation of 
the reality of the praise bestowed. The grounds of 
this necessity will be readily apprehended by those 
who have carefully considered the child's nature as 
presented in a previous chapter. 

There are, however, certain requisites to the 
effectiveness of this species of reward, which, we 
think, are too generally disregarded, and the absence 
of which is, we beUeve, the real cause of the doubt 
which teachers entertain of its utility. All such de- 
clarations of merit, to command the real respect of 
the school, must command the marked attention and 



176 SCHOOL GOVEENMENT. 

regard of the teacher. Given carelessly or informally, 
and without his subsequent steady and respectful re- 
cognition, they will be regarded by the school as 
mere idle words, and, as such, will degenerate into 
mere occasions for mischievous innuendos, than 
which, nothing can exert a worse influence upon the 
meritorious pupil and others sincerely emulous of his 
example. Let the teacher then see to it, that due 
Bolemnity attaches to the act of j)ubKc approval, and 
that the use of its appropriate symbols is always 
protected against ridicule. Indeed, all such ridicule 
should be treated as itself an ojGfense, not only against 
the rights of the pupil, but also against the respect 
due to the teacher. 

Private commendation is not here considered, not 
because it is excluded, but because it belongs under 
the head of natural or constitutional rewards, before 
mentioned. It comes more wdthin the natural hne of 
moral cause and effect ; for the worthy pupil has just 
as much right, and indeed the same right, to expect 
the private approval of his course by the teacher, as 
its approval by liis own conscience. That such ap- 
proval, under only the restrictions of pnidence, is to 
be bestowed when deserved, needs not be argued. 
It is a law of the moral instincts. 

Under the head of conferred privileges, we include 
all such liberties, favors or personal advantages, as 
may, in the teacher's wise exercise of his supreme 
authority, be, by positive provisions, conferred upon 
the meritorious pupil. These privileges must, of 
course, involve no subtraction from, or infringement 



GENERAL ELExMENTS : riiEVEXTIYE CORRECTION. 177 

of, tlie rights of others. They are simply of the 
nature of higher or riupplementary individual rights, 
open to the ambition of all, but due only to those 
distinguished bj specific and really attained merit. 

The bestowment of such pri^-ileges, it Tvdll be seen, 
inTolves a pubHc approval, and is subject to the same 
requisites ^ith that. It, however, transcends public 
approval in rank and effectiveness, inasmuch as it 
involves more substantial tokens of recognized merit. 
Approval involving the use of some distinguishing 
symbol or badge, approaches these privileges some- 
what, but still differs from them in the fact that it is 
a mere honor conferred, and not a real advantage at- 
tained. This real or substantial advantage, or one 
regarded as such by the pupil, is a cardinal element 
in this species of reward. It must be the teacher's 
study to secuj'e its actual presence in the conferred 
privilege. 

These pri\ileges may be conveniently classified un- 
der several heads ; as, Privileges of Begard ; of Com- 
fort ; of Recreation ; and of Lnprovement. 

Without resorting to any formal definition, these 
kinds of reward may be briefiy and practically pre- 
sented with sufficient clearness by simple illustrations. 
It wiU now readily occur to the thoughtful teacher 
how, according to the different susceptibiKties of de- 
serving pupils, he may extend to one the privilege of 
sitting by, or walking with the teacher, or of being 
allovved to do him some special service ; to another, 
the right to occupy some favorite or peculiarly at- 
tractive seat ; to another, some additional means of 



178 SCHOOL GO^^ER^LUEXT. 

amusement or time for plav, or a part in some espe- 
cial scheme of pleasure or recreation projected bj the 
teacher ; and to another, the right to engage in some 
exercise or study beyond his ordinary course ; — 
in these ways distinguishing each as worthy, and 
practically rey\'arding him according to his merits. 

These rewards possess some peculiar advantages.. 
E-ising, for example, above the possible emptiness of a 
mere honor, they involve a substantial benefit which 
api^eals to the better feelings rather than to the mer- 
cenary impulses. Beyond this, there is the advantage 
resultmg fi^om the fact that they may be temporarily 
conferred, or may be resumed in case of dehnquency. 
Thus they may not only be endowed with double value 
by the simple possibihty of their being forfeited ; but 
they may, by being conferred on others, be made sus- 
ceptible of a wider use and application. 

But in order that these rewards, too httle esteemed 
or employed in the government of our schools, may 
be made thoroughly efiective, j)roper pro^asion must 
be made for their application, and a real interest 
in their bestowment must be evinced. This interest 
must also be not only evident but permanent, for 
necessarily the pupil's esteem for them can not be 
expected to rise above the manifest value attached to 
them by the teacher. At least, the expert in reading 
human nature will not expect the child to prize for 
any length of time, the things v/hich he finds others, 
and especially those above him, holding as practically 
more or less wortliless. VHnixi is held as dear by one, 
is very naturally held to be desirable by another. 



GENELAL ELEMENTS I PREVENTIVE CORRECTION. 179 

In this direction also, important use may be made 
of the princijDle of resumption upon forfeiture, as al- 
ready indicated. A steady conviction of the possi- 
bility and the propriety of such a resumption of the 
confeiTed pri\dleges, will, not only serve to demon- 
strate the teacher's regard for their unimpaired 
worth and justice, but it tvoU serve also to perpetuate 
in the pupil's mind a just idea of their true nature 
and end, and will also operate as a steady stimulus 
toward jDersistence in the meritorious course so aus- 
piciously begun, — all of them objects too important 
to be, for one moment, overlooked or disregarded. 

We now come to the last class of rewards enumer- 
ated ; namely, Gifts, a species sufficiently defined by 
their title. These may be conveniently classed as of 
two kinds ; Gifts of Pleasure or Profit. 

Under the head of gifts of pleasure, may be includ- 
ed all articles bestowed as rewards, which are of a 
kind appeahng to the child's love of amusement, or to 
his sense of the curious or the beautiful. These nat- 
urally arrange themselves under three divisions, in- 
cluding severally such as address themselves to the 
active powers, to the fancy or to the imagination. 
Of these, the two former are the more available in the 
case of the younger class of pupils ; but the latter are 
of the higher order both as it regards their relation 
to a purer taste and a more enduring influence. It is 
worthy of observation, however, that the child's im- 
agination is not so much cognitive as dramatic : he 
readily creates character and scenes in his daily 
amusements ; but he does not at aU penetrate through 



180 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

the outer shell of the beautiful, to the hidden soul en- 
shrined within, by the exercise of the creative imagi- 
nation. Hence, whatever is addressed to his fancy, 
and to that fancy as somewhat barbaric in its charac- 
ter, will most commonly give him, for the time being, 
the greater pleasure. The value of such gifts, how- 
ever, is fancied rather than real ; and their capacity 
to produce pleasure is, consequently, limited and 
short-lived. 

Under the head of gifts of profit, we include what- 
ever rewards may be apphed either chiefly or purely 
to some economic or useful end. These may be 
briefly enumerated as of three kinds. First, those 
which, while aftbrding the child a means of proper 
amusement, carefully shape that amusement to some 
useful end of either development or improvement. As 
examples of these, we may mention the various his- 
torical, biogi*aphical and geographical games so abim- 
dant at the present time, and the numerous illustrated 
books upon useful subjects. 

Secondly, those susceptible of conducing to the 
supply of the child's substantial wants either bodily 
or mentally. Examples of this kind of gifts may be 
found in articles of apparel, (apphcable in the case 
of the more destitute class of pu]3ils) ; appUances for 
toilet use ; articles important in the lighter domestic 
employments of girls ; such as are useful in writing, 
drawing, or the care of books, and, lastly, books of 
solid merit and practical utiHty. . 

Thirdly, those gifts which are of a mixed charac- 
ter, possessing, not merely a substantial utility, bufc 



GENEBAL ELEMENTS : PllEYENTIVE CORKECTION. 181 

giving large prominence to the demands of the aes- 
thetic nature as requiring culture and gratification. 
As examples of these, some of those mentioned under 
the preceding head, when they are of a peculiarly 
ornate or artistic character, may be cited. Others 
may be found in illustrated works on natural history, 
science or art, or works of a standard character in 
the field of polite literature, — ^the whole ranging from 
the simple engraving or oil painting, to the choicest 
specimens of the English classics. Of this last 
species of gifts, it is to be observed, that, within their 
proper field of apphcation, they possess a marked 
superiority over all others, and for the two reasons, 
that they extend their influence over more of the 
pupil's susceptibilities ; and, touching the aesthetic 
faculty, they bring themselves into closer adjacency 
to the moral nature, towards which, as will be seen 
hereafter, all such appliances of discipline must faith- 
fully and firmly look and labor. 

And this brings us naturally to the consideration 
of that most important topic, the ground upon which 
alone, rewards may be properly conferred. Its im- 
portance wiU appear in the simple fact that the reward 
often takes its substantial character from the cause 
for which it was conferred, or the principle which de- 
termined its bestowment. It is here, much as it is in 
the case of moral action, the character of which is 
often purely dependent on the inspiring motive. 

These grounds of bestowment may, we think, be 
twofold; the ground of acMevement and that of 
effort ; that is, you may bestow revf ards for something 



182 SCHOOL GOTEKNMENT. 

that has been done, or for something that has simply 
been worthily attempted. In the former case, the 
measure of the reward must, of course, be the meas- 
ure of the amount accompHshed; in the latter, it 
must be guaged altogether by the sum of the effort 
made. 

It is too commonly the case in our schools, that 
rewards are bestowed exclusively upon the ground of 
achievement. Now, we grant that there may be oc- 
casions for the choice of this basis of bestowment as 
necessary to the attainment of desirable ends. But 
it will be quite clear to the observing manager and 
moralist, that these should be sternly classed and 
considered as the exceptions, and not as the rule. 
And for this reason, that the measui^e of actual ac- 
complishment is by no means always the measure of 
true merit, since, either because of higher natural en- 
dowments, or because of manifold more helps and 
advantages, one pupil may, with even less regard for 
the law of the school, and with really no noble inten- 
tion or endeavor, accomplish more than another who 
finely exhibits these higher characteristics, but who 
has been less favored in both endo^Tuents and cir- 
cumstances. 

Hence, the bestowment of rewards upon the ground 
of the worthy effort made, must commend itseK to every 
one as, in aU respects, the better course, — nay, as the 
only one which can be either wisely or justly adopted 
as the law of the school. For, upon no other basis, 
can the disciphne of the school as administered in 
the bestowment of these incentives to right action, 



GENERAL ELE:MENTS : PREVENTIVE CORRECTION. 183 

either place itself on a proper moral foundation, or 
reach those characters which, before all others, need 
and claim its correcting or elevating influences. Be- 
stow rewards upon this basis, however, and you re- 
cognize, not mere abstract results, but motive, spirit, 
character, which is, after all, the real thing you are 
endeavoring to reach and develop under your disci- 
pline. Bestow rewards on this basis, and you will 
reach and inspire with better hopes and aims, many 
a pujDil susceptible of actual redemption from his 
worst failings and faults, who, under any other course, 
would sink into the complete stupor of hopelessness 
and seK-abandonment. 

Before leaving this topic, some attention needs to 
be given to the characteristics which should mark 
the manner in which rewards are bestowed ; since, 
it is quite possible here, as elsewhere, for manner to 
outweigh matter in the production of results. Indeed, 
we are fully of the opinion that many of the objections 
urged, as it is often supposed with vahd force, against 
the use of rewards, hold good, not at all against their 
use, but only against the manner in which they are 
bestowed. 

"We urge then, that rewards, to have their best 
effect, must be bestowed publicly and with due cere- 
mony. From the objective tendencies of children, 
as before noticed, it must be seen that they are crea- 
tures of pomp and show, and borrow largely from the 
outw^ard symbols of an act or an instrument, their 
ideas of its intrinsic worth and dignity. Hence, re- 
wards of whatever species they may be, if bestowed 



184: SCHOOL GOVEKNMENT. 

in private or informally, will come to be seriously 
cheapened in the child's estimation, and T\ill not long 
be regarded as objects deserving of high ambition or 
strenuous effort. 

Besides this, the teacher, if at all possessed of his 
true place in the minds of his pupils, is their stand- 
ard : they conform their measures of value or impor- 
tance, to what they apprehend to be the teacher's 
estimate. Hence, let the teacher turn off the bestow- 
ment of rewards in a careless uninterested manner, 
and the pupil ^yi\l, sooner or later, turn off his recep- 
tion of them in similar style. It is a fixed law of all 
dealing "with human nature, that, if you would make 
others count much upon anything, you must first 
make much of it yourself. Make as much, then, as 
you consistently can, of the bestowment of favors 
and rewards. 

Something in the dii-ection of tliis deep interest 
can be done by after notice and inquiry as to their 
nature, the use that has been made of them, and the 
pleasure which they have produced. In the case of 
gifts possessing a hterary or artistic excellence, some 
pains should be taken to direct the pupil's attention 
to the pecuUar points of admiration. A gift, msely 
chosen vdth. reference to some such subsequent use, 
may be made a means of especial interest and influ- 
ence in the school. Called up as a subject of pubhc 
remark, and skilfully presented in the hght of its 
excellence or utility, it becomes a double prize to its 
owner and a double incentive to the school. 

Bestow your rewards also vnih. great discretion. 



GENEKAL ELEMENTS: PREVENTI-SrE CORRECTION. 185 

They are an extraordinary means of attaining an im- 
portant, tliougli not properly an extraordinary end. 
Hence, nothing can be more injudicious or absurd, 
than a lavish or nndiscriminating bestowment of 
them. Confer them where there is not a clear and 
outstanding merit, and they become practically a lie : 
deal them out broadcast, as is too commonly done, 
and they become even worse than a lie : they are a 
mere farce. The former method, unjust as it is, is 
quite compatible with strength and character in the 
government of the school : the latter is only consist- 
ent with goodish weakness and want of sense in the 
teacher. 

Still further, let proper adaptation in the rewards 
conferred, be carefully studied. The only sensible 
lav/ on this point, is this : that just as age, condition, 
and character vary, so must the rewards. As well 
fail to discriminate in requirement and correction, as 
neglect to discriminate in the specific adaptation 
of conferred privileges or gifts. Such a mark of ap- 
proval as would thrill the very heart of one pupil, 
would, to another, possess little or no interest, and to 
still another, would prove only a subject of ridicule. 
It is, hence, both idle and wasteful to mete out gifts 
to all in the same style and measure. It would com- 
pare well with the wisdom and economy of the farmer, 
who should gather into one inclosure his entire stock 
of animals, from his trotting horse, doT\Ti to his pet 
bantam, and should scatter broadcast before them 
the same general kind of provender. 

It is for the lack of a just observance of this prin- 



186 SCHOOL GOYEENMENT. 

ciple, that the rewards of merit, commonly conferred 
in our schools, so often fail to excite the interest or 
produce the salutary results expected. It is, hence, 
in this direction, that the teacher may, not only evince 
his nice discrimination of character, and his fine tact 
in touching individual peculiarities, but may exert a 
most salutary power to give proper effectiveness to 
his means of precautionary correction, and to secure 
a truer appreciation of his measures, and a higher 
style of sentiment, throughout the school. 

Lastly. Let rewards be conferred purely as a grace, 
and not as a matter of mere compensation. Tliis in- 
volves two points ; namely, first, their bestowment as 
a free exercise of simple authority, and not as a ne- 
cessary duty ; and, secondly, their bestowment purely 
as a provisional consequent upon proper w^ell-doing, 
and not at all as its stipulated price. It is neither 
inconsistent nor injurious for the pupil to receive the 
reward, feehng that it is an authoritative result of 
his well-doing, and a positive symbol of his approved 
merit. But, for him to become impressed or influ- 
enced by the notion that he is to do well that he may 
obtain the reward, is utterly false in prmciple and 
vicious in effect. It is practically, to make the ful- 
fillment of duty a mere matter of barter. 

It is in this direction, that we are to look for the 
real objection to the offering of prizes. Offer a prize 
for the performance of any duty, or the accomplish- 
ment of any pro239r work, and, whether it be a mere 
honor won or a gain acqaired, the pupil is subjected 
to a direjt and powerful temptation to sink all true 



GENEliAL ELEMENTS : rREYENTIYE CORRECTION. 187 

and noble motive in more mercenary ambition and 
endeavor. Ho will be liardly human, if he does not 
sooner or later, under their deceptive stimulus, de- 
generate into a mere hirehng. And the natural con- 
sequence of such a submergence of principle, and 
such a practical degradation of character, >vill be the 
'uprising of that selfishness which so commonly, in 
connection with the offering of prizes, develops itself 
in evil arts, in narrow rivalry, and in subsequent 
heart-burning and recrimination. 

Hence, while we are not prepared to condemn the 
offering of prizes altogether — for, w^e can conceive of 
cases in which, with all their concomitant e\dls, they 
may appear as a necessary means to an indispensable 
though imperfect good — yet, we must urge that they 
are to be held as a purely occasional and extraordi- 
nary means, and not at ail as a fixed or desirable 
element in discipline. Rather than suffer them to 
usurp this latter place in the least degTee, let them 
be proscribed altogether. 

It is proper to add further, that prizes bestowed as 
rewards, are subject, Hke gifts, to this gi-ave defect ; 
that they are, in thek very nature, irresumable ; they 
are beyond reach of forfeiture. However immedi- 
ately or grossly a rew^arded pupil may abandon or 
reverse his praiseworthy course, you have no powder 
to inflict censure by the retraction of the reward. 
You are, moreover, by the necessary finahty of its 
bestowment, cut off from the powder to hold out the 
possibihty of a forfeiture, as an incentive to continued 
and persistent w^ell-doing, the securing of v/hicli is 



188 SCHOOL GOMi:RNMENT. 

tlie real end souglit in your approval. Hence, the 
superiority of the former species of rewards becomes 
evident. Hence, also, it becomes clear that prizes 
are more consistently ultimate ; that is, they more 
properly find their place at the end of a pupil's course 
under the school authority. 

It may occur to some, that under tliis general head, 
some notice should be taken of the so-caUed system 
of " demerit marks." The discussion of that system, 
like that of several others of a specific character, will, 
however, be deferred for the present. And for the 
reasons, that it is somewhat mixed in its character, 
partaking both of the nature of rewards and of pun- 
ishments, — a fact which properly assigns it a place 
elsewhere ; and because the variety of considerations 
connected with its examination in detail, together 
with their somewhat diversified relations, and their 
grave importance, renders a distinct examination both 
more consistent and convenient. 



CHAPTEE X. 

GENERAL ELEMENTS CONTTNLTED. DISCIPLINE — PENAL COR- 
RECTION — THEORIES OF PUNISHMENT. 

Penal correction defined — Punishment defined— Restricted use of the 
term — Theory of'-'' natural reactio7is^'' (Spencer's) stated — Objections to the 
theory — Based exclusively upon assumptions with regard to reaction- 
ary discipline in physical nature — These assumptions unwarranted — 
The theory framed with reference to physical rather than moral being — 
Hence, inadequate to reach the higher oflfenses — Illustration — It 
ignores fixed distinctions between mind and matter — Ignores cardinal 
facts in the condition oj the moral nature — Depraved will may nullify 
internal moral reactions — The external reactions may he wanting — 
Moral reactions altogether contingent and uncertain — Theory fails to 
distinguish- the authoritative from the consequential — Does not distin- 
guish the authoritative from the non-authoritative — Government can 
symbolize its displeasure only through positive inflictions — Cardinal 
distinctions between government of nature and of authority — Assumed 
superiority of the "natural reaction" scheme a fallacy — Hicmanitarian 
scAeme— Relation to the reaction scheme — Animus of both — Infliction 
of pain as punishment, a necessity in nature — Pain in physical nature 
a means to a moral end — Human power to inflict pain under author- 
ity, not usurped or tyrannous — Non-infliction of pain not necessarily 
humane — Source of the objection to pain, excessive sympathy with the 
Individual — Reformatory scheiyie — Discipline, not primarily, nor chiefly 
reformatory — The grand end, the protection of the innocent and the 
conservation of the body politic — No practical escape from the use of 
punishment in the school — Hov) reduce its amo2mt—Bj removing occa- 
sions for transgression — By the institution of exact and eflective dis- 
cipline — By the use of moral instruction — The introduction of moral 
instruction into schools argued — As necessary to the attainment of 
the end of true education — This sustained by history, philosophy 
and common sense — Moral suasion scheme. 

We pass now to the second general division of cor- 
rection or enforcement ; namely, Penal Correction. 



190 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Under the head of penal correction, or the coiTective 
enforcement of law, we include the use of all means 
calculated to suppress offenses ; to sustain the gov- 
ernment of the school against the encroachments of 
offenders ; and to prevent the lapsing of the innocent 
into transgression. These means, as such, are cus- 
tomarily termed punishments. 

For the sake of guarding against error, we define 
punishments in precise accordance with the common 
apprehension of mankind, as being the authoritative 
infliction, by some properly constituted sovereignty, 
of some species of evil or suffering iipon ^dlful offend- 
ers against the requirements of law. 

By a mere license in speech, growing partly out of 
convenience in expression, and partly out of a some- 
what oblique analogy in the mere condition of the 
transgressor of natural law, and that of the violator 
of the positive regulations of government proper, the 
term punishment is sometimes apphed to the ordi- 
nary occurrence of consequential evils. Thus we say 
of the child who persists in playing with fire and gets 
burned, or of the person v jio disregards the laws of 
health, and incurs some severe illness, that he is richly 
punished for his misconduct. 

But it is simply a contradiction of the common 
sense, of mankind, and a perversion of proper lan- 
guage, to insist that this is, in any true or honest 
sense, punishment, or to covertly accept and treat it 
as such. No government has ever accepted the sub- 
jection of the transgi-essor to these consequential 
e\Tls, as, in any part, sustaining the majesty of its 



THEORIES : NATURAL REACTION SCHEME. 191 

laws, or fulfilling the ends of justice ; nor lias law 
ever regarded the occurrence of these consequences 
as at all forestalling the apphcation of penalty, or in 
one iota justly abating its measure of infliction. 
Hence, a somewhat noted modern theorist, while prac- 
tically treating them as the only proper species or 
standards of penalty, cautiously admits that "they 
are not punishments in the Kteral sense." 

Notwithstanding this admission, these consequen- 
tial results are, by that writer, practically pressed as 
the only legitimate species of penalty, and with so 
much plausibility and earnestness, that it becomes 
important to notice the theory critically. According 
to this nahcral reaction sclieine, proper punishments 
" are not artificial and unnecessary inflictions of pain." 
It is their pecuHarity " that they are nothing more 
than the unavoidahle consequences of the deeds which 
they foUow." It is to " be further borne in mind that 
they are proportionate to the degree in which the or- 
ganic laws have been transgressed." These natural 
reactions " are constant, direct, unhesitating, and 
not to be escaped," and " they hold throughout adult 
Hfe as well as throughout infantine life." In be- 
half of "this system of letting the penalty be in- 
flicted by the laws of things," it is assumed, "not 
only that the system by which the young child is so 
successfully taught to regulate its movements, is also 
the discipline by which the great mass of adults are 
kept in order, and more or less improved ; but that 
the discipline humanly devised for the worst adults, 
fails when it diverges from this divinely-ordained 



192 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

discipline, and begins to succeed when it approxi- 
mates to it." 

Before entering upon the examination of those de- 
fects in the theory which bear most directly upon 
our main subject, we desire to call the attention to 
certain general positions taken by its author, which 
we believe involve mere unwarranted assumption, 
and form the basis of much sophistical reasoning. 
The radical facts upon which these positions are 
sought to be established, are drawn from physical 
nature and its laws of cause and effect. 

Now it is assumed, first, that these natural reac- 
tions or punishments " are nothing more than the 
unavoidable consequences of the deeds which they 
follow ;" that is, they are not artificial or positive 
provisions of authority. But is this the ultimate 
truth? So far as man, the subject, is concerned, 
they are doubtless immediately apprehended as sim- 
ply consequences fixed in the ordinary round of na- 
ture. But, considered mth reference to the originat- 
ing sovereignty, (and it is that with which we have to 
do,) were they not primally, in the act of creation, 
really positive provisions authoritatively introduced 
into the physical scheme of things? Man's short- 
sighted disposition to rest content with their imme- 
diate phase as merely consequential, by no means 
changes the fact that they are ultimately the pure 
mandates of the Di\dne will, and just as truly so as 
any specific provisions subsequently thrust into the 
system. 

Again, secondly, it is assumed of these consequences, 



THEORIES : NATURAL REACTION SCHEME. 193 

tliat '' these painful reactions are proportionate 
to the degree in which the organic lavv's have been 
transgressed." But how wide this is of the truth, 
every day's experience fully and often painfully de- 
monstrates. For example, one cliild carelessly tum- 
bles over the door step and suffers consequences severe 
enough to remind him of the necessity of future cau- 
tion. But who does not know that another may ex- 
perience the same fall without receiving the least in- 
jury, while still another is weU-nigh killed out-right? 
So too, one cliild wilfully, and in flagrant disregard 
of express warnings, plays with fire, and escapes with 
impunity, while another, engaging in precisely the 
same act through pure ignorance, is actually burned 
to death. So far from these natural reactions being 
proportionate to the inducing acts, their singular dis- 
proportionateness is one of the most perplexing mys- 
teries of the present state of being. 

It is further assumed " that these natural reactions 
which follow the child's wrong actions are constant, 
direct, unhesitating, and not to be escaped." But 
we have just seen that cases may easily occur in 
which the wrong act may be, and without the painful 
consequence at aU. Beyond this, who does not know 
the power of mere repetition, to practically nullify or 
destroy the proper reaction ? For example, the boy 
takes tobacco, chews it, and he is made sick ; but he 
continues the practice, and finally ceases to experi- 
ence the reactionary penalty ; nay, he wiU be made 
sick by the attempt to abandon the hateful practice. 

Once more, it is assumed that the transgTessor 



194: Sf'HOOL GOYEENMENT. 

*' soon recognizing this stern thougli beneficent dis- 
f^ipline becomes extremely careful not to transgress." 
Now while this effectiveness of the natural reactions 
as a corrective, may be measurably true of the mere 
minor and aimless violations of physical laws, it is 
•utterly untrue of all that higher and more dangerous 
class of transgressions, in which the incentives of 
pleasure or immediate gratification come into play. 
Society is full of examples of the most painful nature, 
in which the constant experience of the saddest con- 
sequences altogether fails to deter men and women 
from known violations of the laws of the physical 
nature. 

Without pausing to notice here the various and 
singular failures of the writer in question to discover 
the thorough inconclusiveness of many of his infer- 
ences ; his entire disregard of the most evident dis- 
tinctions between the facts of the purely physical 
system and one as purely moral ; and his sometimes 
w^inding and painful evasions of the real question at 
issue, we pass to those more vital errors which vitiate 
the whole system as one of moral discipline and gov- 
ernmental correction. 

In the first place, then chiefly, the theory is one 
developed from the physical constitution of things 
rather than from the facts and laws of the moral 
nature. It finds its predominant types and leading 
principles in the operation of physical causes, and 
the laws of their effects, or consequences, and not in 
the exercise of the moral powers and the necessary 
principles of their just control. Hence, unless there 



TITEOTilES: NATURAL KEACTION SCHEME. 1*)5 

can be estabKshed an exact parallelism between the 
two, or unless tlie latter can be sliown to be merely 
the ulterior development of the former, the analogy 
instituted between tl:e two must sooner or later fail, 
or, if still pressed, must prove utterly deceptive. 
But no such parallelism or principle of continuous 
development can be proven. 

This may, perhaps, be more clearly seen in specific 
illustration. Thus, if one runs a pin into his finger, 
pain follows : the consequence is immediate and 
certain. But, if he tells a lie, the moral sequence, — 
conscious guilt and remorse, — ^is not, as all experience 
shows, immediate and certain ; nay, it is more com- 
monly imcertain, and is reached only through inter- 
vening pressure and struggle. Again, if one tumbles 
over a door-step through heedlessness, the shght 
accident produces a slight pain, whereas a more 
serious accident would occasion a greater pain. But 
it by no means follows, that this gradation of effects 
holds good where action purely moral is concerned : 
it by no means follows, that he who steals fifty dollars 
wdll feel five times the self-condemnatory pain, or mil 
incur five times the opprobium which falls to the lot 
of him who has taken but ten. StiU further, he who 
spiUs boiKng water on his hands may learn from the 
resulting scald, a lesson so effective that no persua- 
sion will induce him again to disregard the laws of 
his constitution in that way. But no man of common 
sense needs to be told, that it by no means follows 
from this, that he who has basely defrauded his 
neighbor, experiences so keen a pang in consequence, 



196. SCHOOL GOMilRNMENT. 

or is visited by sucli naturally resultant evils, that no 
inducement of avaricious desire will persuade bim to 
do the same again. Nay, experience teaches that he 
who has done it once, is, if anything, the more likely 
to venture upon a second experiment of the same 
kind, and that one still more flagitious. 

Without multiplying illustrations, it will, we think, 
be clearly enough seen from the foregoing, that this 
method of moral discipline must prove wholly inade- 
quate to the proper correction of the higher offenses. 
"While, as a subsidiary means, it may render important 
service in the treatment of all offenses which, involv- 
ing distinctly the violation of some law of material 
being, are subject to the \dgorous imposition of nat- 
ural consequences ; when the transition is to the spir- 
itual being, and the offense becomes more exclusively 
moral, and, as such, is, in its consequences, not only 
more subtle, but more varied and imcertain, these 
natural reactions, as they are termed, must of neces- 
sity fall greatly short of most of the demands made 
upon disciphne. 

Thus, in the case of a child who has carelessly lost 
his knife, you may insist upon the continuance of the 
natural consequence, — ^his deprivation of the privilege 
of having one. But carry out the assumed intimation 
of nature when he has failed to acquii-e the knowl- 
edge embraced in a cei-tain lesson, and insist upon 
his continued deprivation of that knowledge as a just 
punishment, and the whole is simply absurd. Again, 
suppose a man to have wasted his fortune in riotous 
indulgence ; and the resultant beggary and disease 



THEORIES : NATURAL REACTION SCHEME. 197 

wliicli are tlie natural consequences of liis folly and 
Yice, may serve as a species of discipline, to correct 
liis false notions of pleasure or propriety, and deter 
liim from a repetition of liis wild extravagance and 
desti-uctive indulgence. But, suppose that lie has by 
a l)ase forger}- reduced his friend to beggary ; or has 
by an act of perjury deprived an innocent man of 
character or hberty ; or has with cool calculation 
robbed an unsuspecting victim of life or limb ; — sup- 
230se any of these, and what natural consequence can 
you discover to be, with lilie certainty and severity, 
treading upon the heels of his transgression, as an 
adequate and sure corrective ? 

Nor vdll it avail to plead that, in such cases, the 
wants of discipline may be met by the use of the 
higher means, such as the withdrawal of confidence, 
.the demand for restitution, or deprivation of 23ersonal 
liberty ; for in the case of him who has gone to these 
extremes of crime, there may be an entire insensibility 
to the verdict of the pubhc sentiment ; restitution 
may be a simple impossibility ; and as for the incar- 
ceration of the culprit as an unsafe person, that is 
not at all a natural consequence ; it is altogether an 
authoritative act, and one of those j)ositive inflictions 
pironounced by the theorist, as artificial and useless 
punishments. By the very terms of his theory, then, 
the progress of the natural reactionist in this direc- 
tion is estopped. 

In this direction, then, the theory of moral disci- 
pline, chiefly through the medium of natural reac- 
tions, is reprehensible on the ground that it practi- 



198 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

callj ignores radical and fixed distinctions tliat exist- 
between matter and mind ; it quietly, but none tlie 
less positively, assumes that natural causes and free 
causes are confederate on the same basis, are bound 
by the same chain of consequential necessity, and 
are to be determined m their practical laws and ap- 
pUcations by the same processes of investigation, 
and reasoning. In all this, it betrays its hearty sym- 
pathy with that pretentious modern philosophizmg 
(we cannot dignify it as philosophy) which endows 
each corpuscle with an atom of intelligence, aggi'e- 
gates their force in a nervous system, culminates the 
vrhole in the cineritous matter of the brain, and thus, 
identifying mind v.dth subhmated nerve force, ends 
in pure, though covert materialism. 

Still further, the theory, as just hinted, thoroughly 
ignores certain cardinal facts in the nature and ope» 
ration of the moral powers, which underHe all just 
and effective appKcation of government to the ra- 
tional subject. Assummg complacently, as it does, 
that the intimations of nature in the chain of phys- 
ical causation are a sufficient guide to the conse- 
quential disciphne of those higher offenses which are 
either chiefly or exclusively moral, it practically de- 
nies the following facts : 

First. That it is fully within the power of a de- 
praved will to destroy all natural reaction of the 
moral nature, so that no such moral punishment will 
be possible within the consciousness of the offender. 
Thus, a person may, from the influence of evil asso- 
ciations, from the strength of habit, or from the 2)ower 



THEOPJES: NATUR^VL REACTION SCHEME. 199 

of a depraved propensity, have come to litive the 
reason so perverted in its aj^preliension, and the con- 
science so benumbed in its sensibility, that the com- 
mission of crimes of no inconsiderable magnitude, 
may awaken no inconvenient consciousness whatever. 
For example, how often do profanity, falsehood, or 
petty theft, occur " and give no sign" of any painful 
sense of guilt, shame, or remorse ? But in such a 
case, where is the certain, the gTaduated, the inex- 
orable consequence, that, as natural reaction, is to 
serve as punishment ? 

But suppose the theorist appeals to the external 
effects of such misdeeds, — their influence to awaken 
displeasure and produce reprehension, in others. 
Who does not know that the same causes may have 
operated to make another, — a parent, a teacher, a 
friend, any person so situated as to become cognizant 
of the offense and to be able to visit his displeasure 
as a natural reaction upon the offender, — who does 
not know that he may have been made just as insen- 
sible to the criminal character of the act, and may 
have come to be just as much beyond the reach of 
any painful feelings as a consequence of its commis- 
sion, as the offender himself ? How many persons 
are entirely unaffected by the utterance of an oath, 
or a petty falsehood, or the taking of some fi'audu- 
lent advantage of another. In these cases, where 
is the chance for that displeasure, or withdrawal of 
confidence, or censure which as external natural re- 
actions may serve as punishment? "But," says the 
theorist, "the offender is amenable to pubhc senti- 



200 SCHOOL GOYEENJIENT. 

ment." Suppose, however, jour public sentiment, as 
it often is, is so far debased as to have no voice of 
condemnation, then what ? There are communities 
where sabbath-breaking, polygamy or licentiousness, 
do not shock the pubhc sensibihty at all ; nay, 
where the abuses are even justified : where are the 
natural reactions here ? 

The truth is, while the j97i?/5zm? reactions, upon 
which the whole scheme is so plausibly based, are 
somewhat certain and constant the world over, the 
moral reactions, whether internal or external, indi- 
vidual or social, are so subject to the contingencies 
of voluntary action, and are, hence, so variable and 
uncertain, that it is difficult to see how the attempt 
could be made to reason conclusively from the former 
to the latter, with an intelligent or honest purpose. 

As a final objection to this theory, we ui'ge this ; 
that its proposed provisions for the correction of of- 
fenses fail altogether to distinguish the authoritative 
from the general, or non-authoritative, in disciphne : 
it wholly excludes the very idea fundamental and 
necessary to all government ; namely, that of proper 
sovereignty. To present this more clearly, take, 
for example, the case of one who, having eaten to 
excess, becomes as a natural consequence violently 
ill. Now the pMlosopMcal thinker may, in tracing out 
the hue of causation, discover in the painfid result of 
the excessive indulgence, an indication of the Divine 
will in favor of temperance as a virtue, and against 
gluttony as a vice. But not so with the mass of 
mind. To such mind, the ultimate authority is prac- 



THEOIUES : NATUKAL KEACTION SCHEME. 201 

tically submerged in mere natural causation. The 
whole occurrence, being bounded within the fixed and 
every way ordinary circuit of natural laws, is, "and we 
may almost add, can only be, apprehended as a thing 
in nature, and not at all in an authority or govern- 
ment as beyond and above nature. Hence, the al- 
most universal experience of mankind is, that such 
occurrences are apprehended as involving simply an 
error in action, and serving as an admonition to the 
exercise of higher wisdom or prudence ; and not at 
all, as embracing direct guilt, and demanding atone- 
ment and subsequent obedience to rightful sover- 
eignty. 

Still further, take the case of a child who has been 
guilty of falsehood. The natural external reaction 
by which the offense is to be corrected, is a manifes- 
tation of displeasure and of withdrawn confidence in 
the reliability of his word. But suppose the offense 
to have come equally under the cognizance of A, the 
parent, and B, a mere acquaintance. The former 
holds an authoritative relation to the offender ; the 
latter only a general relation. Yet the reaction is 
the same in kind in the case of both. How then is 
this reaction as penalty, to distinguish the authorita- 
tive from the non-authoritative ; how can it evince 
the superior rights and responsibihties of the proper 
sovereignty over those of mere association and gen- 
eral regard for virtue ? Hence, so far as the " indi- 
cation of nature" is concerned, the stranger is as 
competent to apply the corrective, or the punishment, 
as the parent. But this is abhorrent to the common 



202 SGKOOL DISCirLlNK. 

sense of mankind, and in direct conliicfc ^vitli tlio 
necessary ideas of order and justice. 

Lastty, we objec' to tliis theory of natural reactions 
according to these assumed intimations of nature, 
that it disenables the collective authority of civil gov- 
ernment from the proper censure or punishment of 
offenses against its rightful sovereignty. So far as 
individual expressions of displeasure or manifestation 
of impaired confidence are concerned, we have seen 
that while they can not cover the required gTound 
necessary for the recognition or maintenance of the 
authority, they are still possible. But collect all the 
individuals in a commonwealth, and require them to 
be represented in a collective authority or govern- 
ment proper, and where are we to find those direct 
expressions of look, tone, word or natural action, 
which can effectively say to the offenders, you have 
committed an offense ; displeasure is felt ; confidence 
is withdrawn? Conceive of the culprit as under a 
government forbidden to go beyond the hmit of these 
natural consequences and reactions, or any others 
possible in strict accordance with these assumed in- 
timations of nature, as argued fi-om the primary basis 
of necessary cause and effect and you conceive of him 
as in the very realm and paradise of villainy. Con- 
ceive of a government so conditioned, and you may 
as well at once append to the law of its constitution 
the memorable item added by Luther to the twelve 
articles drawn up by the rebel fanatics under Miin- 
zer : " From this day forth, the honorable Council 
shall be powerless, — its functions shall be to do no- 



THEOlllES: XATUlLiL KEACTION SCHEME. 203 

tiling, — it shall sit as an idol or as a log, — the com- 
mune shall chew its meat for it, and it shall be bound 
hand and foot." 

The truth is, the system of nature can only compre- 
hend and consider the being under her administra- 
tion, as simply creature: government must look 
farther, and hold him under her control and disci- 
pline, as subject. Under the former, the only concep- 
tion of that which lies back of, and is installed above, 
being, is that of superior agency, as author : under 
the latter, it is distinctly that of supreme power, as 
a uthority. Under the former, therefore, the inflictions 
are necessarily causal, or consequential : under the 
latter, they must be positive and penaL Hence, it 
will be seen that government proper is not the mere 
natiu^al or constitutional concurrence of creative 
power and product, cause and effect. It is rather a 
distinct positive institution, not in conflict with na- 
ture, but rising clearly and legitimately above nature ; 
adapted to the higher wants of associated moral be- 
ings, and providing for the attainment of ends which 
nature can not reach. Of this character precisely are 
ci^dl governments, and as such, they must both for their 
ovvn manifestation and suppoi't, be privileged to em- 
ploy positive inflictions, — those very "inflictions of 
pain" which the theory stigmatizes as " artificial and 
unnecessary," and of which judicial condemnation, 
civil disabilities, "imprisonment or other restraint," 
are clear and well-defined examples, all plausible pre- 
tense to the contrary notwithstanding. Government 
is an artificial symbol of the collective sense and wiU 



204 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

of the community, and it must spnbolize its own sense 
and will to a greater or less extent, by corresponding 
artificial means. Hence, we urge that the theory of 
natural reactions is objectionable as practically, in 
its proper consummation, subversive of civil gov- 
ernment. 

Without going into a specific apphcation of these 
facts, it will be seen generally that, inasmuch as these 
defects in the theory are radical, the assumed superi- 
ority of its apphcation to the moral discipline of 
the child in the school, is wholly fallacious. Under 
all the fair-seeming philosophy and ingenious reason- 
ings of its popular advocate, there lies a broad sub- 
stratum of error in both premises and inferences. 
This error should not be allowed to escape the notice 
of the teacher. Left unconscious of its presence and 
nature, he will, not only be in danger of being divert- 
ed from the true theory of government, but he will be 
disenabled to make the wisest use of such just sug- 
gestions as the theorj^ really contains. 

But there is another species of error current in 
society, and largely afi'ecting the views of educational 
reforms. It is not to be found so formally developed 
in theory as the foregoing; but is, perhaps, more 
widely and dangerously operative in fact. Super- 
ficially, its relation to the scheme of natural reactions, 
may not be readily apparent. But, substantially, the 
originating and animating principle is the same in 
both. What that principle is, and how it leads to the 
two results, may be seen as follows. Given a con- 
sciousness in man of subjection to a divine moral 



THEORIES : nUMANITAllIAN SCHEME. 205 

government, and of inciuTed guilt deserving of condign 
punishment, the anxious problem to be solved, is, how 
to escape a just subjection to positive pains and pen- 
alties, beyond the present state of being. Now, very 
clearly, establish the principle that, under a system 
of moral disciphne among men, all the so-called arti- 
ficial punishments ar6 unnecessary and unjust : or 
set up the claim that the authoritative infliction of 
positive pain, or the use of disciphne for any other 
than reformatory purposes, is inhumane, or, at least, 
inconsistent with perfect benevolence, and the case is 
apparently gained. Having thus shut up human gov- 
ernment within the narrow range of these me^'e nat- 
ural consequences of transgression, and to the mere 
amiable ends of humane individual reformation, there 
is but a step from that to the apphcation of the same 
laws and bounds to the moral government of God, 
the result of which, if successful, will be obvious. 

It becomes then important that this (for want of a 
better term) humanitarian scheme of discipline should 
be carefuhy examined. The substance of its outcry 
against its antagonistic system of government and 
disciphne, is that these inflictions of pain are unphilo- 
sophical, and inhumane, vindictive rather than re- 
formatory. 

With reference to the question of philosophical 
consistency, we urge the following considerations. 
First, the infliction of disciplinary pain is the very 
thing directly sustained by the indications of nature. 
In more express terms, the supreme authority in na- 
ture everyvvdiere inflicts pain for violations of his de- 



206 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

mands. True, lie does it tlirougli the medium of 
what are called natural laws. But that neither makes 
the infliction less productive of pain, or less an act of 
the authority. It only makes it the clearer that, root- 
ed as this painful species of corrective discipline is in 
the very substratum of nature, its general application 
under contingent modiflcatioiTS, is not arbitrary nor 
accidental: it is fundamental and necessaiy. It 
shows that the right to inflict disciplinary pain is in- 
herent in aU just authority, and that authoritative 
subjection to such penal infliction is a necessary con- 
tingency of aU actual transgression. 

Nor does the more manifest connection of these 
painful inflictions in nature ^ith the physical side of 
being, invalidate the argument. God, in nature, no 
more inflicts pain for the mere physical results, than 
does man in society. It is done always as a natural 
and necessary means to a moral end. The blow 
struck upon the body, in the case of him who, tram- 
pling on the laws of temperance, suffers the pangs of 
indigestion or the horrors of delirium-tremens, is in- 
tended to react upon the soul, which cannot other- 
wise be reached so well. The outcry of nature in the 
pain endured is not against the hand which grasped 
the means of excess, nor the mouth which took in 
the forbidden elements, nor the stomach which re- 
ceived and endeavored to appropriate them ; but it is 
raised against the sinful spirit which demanded the 
base subservience of these instruments in its bodily 
nature, to its sensual desires and depraved wiU. And 
thus the divine authoiity in nature stands as a proto- 



THEORIES : HUMANITAillAN SCHEME. 207 

type for the liiiman aiitlioritj in society, in its strug- 
gle to repress tlie evil and preserve the good for the 
great ends of the common weal. 

Nor is it any just counter-plea, that, in nature, it is 
God who disciplines by pain, while under ci\il or 
social law, it is only usiu'ping man. In nature, God 
has, for the necessary stabihty of being itseK, main- 
tained himseK in immediate presence and active au- 
thority. But in human society, he has, for the sake 
of conferred free agency, and the development of 
voluntary capacity, responsibihty and power, with- 
drawn himseK, as it were, fi'om the immediate control, 
and imposed its exercise, with all its prerogatives and 
liabilities, upon the human agency itself. Proper 
Jiuman government is, in this sense, a delegated vice- 
gerent of God himseK ; and it is thus that " the powers 
that be," whether domestic, scholastic, ci\dl, or eccle- 
siastical, " are ordained of God." And that such au- 
thorities can not discipline by natural laws, as does 
God ia nature, is no argument that they must not 
administer correction by means of what are stigmatiz- 
ed as " aiiificial inflictions of pain." The prerogative 
of ruling is not delegated without the right to the 
means of discipline ; and those means, as has aKeady 
been seen, involve the positive reaching of the refrac- 
tory spirit, through the avenues of the bodily organ- 
ism, and in just such ways as are practicable and 
effective, whether in accordance Tvdth the ordinary 
laws of nature or not. Indeed, it is not yet m proof, 
that even the Di^one Ruler, in dealing \\ith the more 
exclusive forms of moral dehnquency, has restricted 



208 SCHOOL GOVEENaCENT. 

himself to tlie narrow range of corrective means in 
simple cause and effect, as lie does in the case of the 
violation of physical laws. 

In the second place, as to the plea of inhumanity, 
which is sometimes urged in objection, it is equally 
fallacious. The Vvdthholding of painful inflictions is 
not necessarily humane, for it is not clear to any ob- 
serving and candid mind, that pain is necessarily an 
evil. Nay, the natural reactionist himself, and in 
accordance with the common-sense of mankind, ad- 
mits the benevolent utility of pain in its physical re- 
lations, as a necessary means to a merciful end : in 
other words, it is, in the perfect circle of related being 
and action, an absolute good. Not less distinctly has 
it, in all human government, been accepted as the, 
same, and both under the same general law, and for 
the same general reason. Furthermore, if in nature, 
where only the preservation of indi^ddual being is the 
cardinal end to be attained, the infliction of pain is a 
necessary good, much more, may it be reasonably 
argued, is it both just and true in the society or 
the state, Vv^here a broader and more comprehensive 
being than that of the mere individual is concerned, 
and higher and more imperative interests than that 
of mere existence, are at stake. 

It is a significant fact that these objections against 
the infliction of pain are due in good part to certain 
errors which characterize these humanitarian schem- 
ists, in general. One of these is, that, with a vision 
narrowed by false sympathy with suffering, they see 
-with effective sharpness, only the suffering mdividual, 



theories: reformatory sciiejme. 209 

while all the broad surrounding circle of related life 
and interest is lost in vague imperception. Or, if 
they at all perceive the vital nature and claims of 
society as a whole, they have, by beginning with the 
study of the individual sufferer under law, so im- 
paired the habit and grasp of the apprehension, that 
when it has even worked up and out to the surround- 
ing breadth of the social or civil organism, they be- 
hold it only as a thing reduced and remote. They 
have bent their gaze upon it, only through the in- 
verted glass. If they would but reverse the process ; 
if they would but begin with the greater interests of 
the organic whole, with the majesty and responsibihty 
of government as the sole conservator of those inter- 
ests, and thence descend to the proper claims of the 
individual offender, they would obtain better and 
broader conceptions of the nature and prerogatives 
of disciphne ; they would discover how much greater 
the whole is than any of its parts, how much more 
important to be avoided are the pangs of dissolute 
or dissolving society, than the pains of the indi\ddual 
transgressor who has fallen into the hands of human 
justice. 

With reference to the remaining error, — that of 
assuming the office of governmental discipline to be 
primarily and chiefly reformatory, — there occurs an 
inversion of the order of things, no less transparent 
than in the former case. Indeed a ]3erversely upside 
down philosophy seems to be the peculiar penchant 
of these theorizers. Now the reformation of the 
guilty/ may, and should somewhere, be an object 



210 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

sought ; but ratlier witliin the sphere of individual 
philanthropy than governmental control. The phil- 
anthropic element in government, so far as it has a 
place, must concern itself rather with the general 
welfare. Hence, to all true government, the first and 
highest end, is the twofold preservation of the loyal 
and innocent : first, their preservation as a body 
pohtic, intact and secure from the encroachments of 
the disloyal and vicious ; and secondly, their preser- 
vation generally from any endangered loss of their 
own purity and rectitude, as induced by the baleful 
presence among them of uncurbed example and 
crimes " unwhipped of justice." The former, it se- 
cures by the restraints and disabilities it imposes 
upon transgressors, and the latter by the inflicted 
penalties and pains which stand as a perpetual warn- 
ing to those who have not yet fallen. And we are 
bold to say, farther, that under no true theory of 
government, can any other than this first and highest 
end be diredhj proposed ; the reformatory end, where 
it is sought, being so properly, only as a means to 
the better preservation of the innocent. This it ef- 
fects by securing their more thorough protection 
against any further trespass upon their rights by 
the criminal as once brought to justice and through 
that, if reformed, restored to positive rectitude. 

The apphcation of these broad and comprehensive 
principles to the use of disciphnary penalties and 
pains in our schools, as it regards both their utility 
and natural consistency, is henceforth so clear that 
we might venture to leave its further consideration 



TKEOrJES : ilEFOll^IATORY HCIIEMK. 211 

to tlie sound sense of the teaclicr liinisclf. And yet, 
we doubt not there will arise in some minds, more 
tender in feeling than Tigorous in thought, the pain- 
fully present and pressing question, " Is there, then, 
no escape from the necessity of emi3lo}ang means of 
correction so seemingly pitiless and repulsive ?" 
•^ To this question, we can only answer frankly, no, 
not until there shall appear in the present state, some 
new and nobler incarnation of the human spirit with 
both a regenerated moral nature and a restored per- 
fection of the physical being. So long as man shall 
continue to exist as a free moral agent, controlled, 
nevertheless, by a depraved will, and bound in sub- 
jection to a material organism ; so long it cannot be 
otherwise, than that, transgi'essing the higher laws of 
the spiritual essence within him, he must in some part, 
for both his own good and that of society, be reined 
in and driven back from evil doing, by those stern 
mandates which can only send their living utterances 
to the soul, through the roused sensibilities of the 
bodily nature. 

The only question, then, which the practical teacher 
can raise with just reasonableness, is, how can the 
necessity for the use of these penal inflictions in the 
school, be reduced to its minimum ? This question 
admits of a more hopeful and happy answer. That 
answer embraces several practical suggestions. 

First. The necessity for the use of penal inflictions 
in the school can be largely reduced by the careful 
institution of such a wise and noble order in both 
arrangement and management, as wiU, as has already 



212 SCHOOL GOVEBNMENT. 

been shown, materially diminisli the occasions for 
transgression, and infuse into the minds of the pnpils, 
a deeper interest and a higher ambition. 

Secondly. It may be further reduced by the insti- 
tution of such exact and effective discipline, — to be 
fully discussed hereafter, — as will create a prevaihng 
conviction through all its ranks, of the inevitable 
certainty of detection and just punishment. 

Thirdly. The last and crowning means of com- 
pleting this reduction, — means, alas, too seldom and 
too feebly employed, — is to be found in the earnest 
and prominent use of moral instruction in the school ; 
not the mere incidental enunciation of a stale and 
lifeless ethics, — an ethics discharged of all rehgious 
principle, a mere moral cadaver with no divine in- 
dwelhng and energizing spirit, — but the steady and 
systematic pressmg upon the minds and hearts of 
the pupils, of those great laws and obhgations which, 
as both moral and religious, are the sole foundation 
for all pure and perfected character. 

This, we are well aware, is broadly broaching the 
much-mooted question, whether or not, moral instruc- 
tion should be introduced into schools under the con- 
trol of the state, as a fixed part of its educational 
system, — a question the solution of which we regard 
as neither doubtful nor difficult. That solution, hov/- 
ever, is possible, only under the condition that a just 
view be taken of the end to be sought by the state in 
estabhshing a system of popular education. For, 
what the state must seek as its end, determines what 



THEOIITES : REFORMATORY SCHEME. 213 

the state must do with moral instruction as a means 
to that end. 

Let it then be understood at the outset, that inas- 
much as gOA^ernment is instituted, not by the individ- 
ual, but by the community; and inasmuch as it is 
estabhshed, not for the individual benefit, but for the 
public good, its entire province and prerogative must 
be limited by its responsibihty to the commonwealth, 
for the common weal. Hence, government must be 
made to look municipally, — if we may be allowed the 
word, — at the state, and not individually at the man ; 
it must be moved by an economical regard for the 
good of the state, and not by a mere humane concern 
for the person ; it must act to the one comprehensive 
end, the conservation and advancement of the state, 
and not for the simple, prior or prominent object of 
benefiting of the individual. That these secondary 
objects concerning the mere individual man, may be, 
and, under any proper administration of government, 
must be attained, is freely gxanted ; but it is as firmly 
maintained, that they are not, and never may be, a 
proper end or direct object of government as such. 
The first, sole, proper and direct object of the state, 
then, must be its own conservation and advancement, 
its own perpetuity, its own prosperity, — these are its 
objects of concern, its ends of action. 

Hence, not at all for the simple direct sake of any 
person or persons as such ; not at all for his or their 
advantage, other than as the merest consequent of its 
legitimate action, may any proper government provide 
schools and instruction for the people. Only to this 



214 SCHOOL GOYEENMENT. 

end may it do that,— that there may be possible in 
the state, that highest and purest exercise of pohtical 
rights among the people, which will ensure in the state 
the wisest constitution, the ablest administration, and 
the most enduring permanence of government, and 
through these, the true dignity, stabihtj and pros- 
perity of the state itseK. In other words, only to 
the end of its own conservation and advancement, 
may the state ever establish or maintain a system of 
pubhc instruction. 

Here, then, the question, always pertinent, becomes 
actually vital ; is mere intellectual or scientific culture 
enough to meet the conditions of the case ; is that 
sufficient to render a state system of pubhc instruc- 
tion either competent to the attainment of the desired 
end, or consistent with it? Give the people such 
culture only, and will that ensure in them, and fi'om 
them, such combined intelligence, virtue and loyalty, 
as will secure the state, for all time, against its most 
dangerous enemies, popular ignorance, social corrup- 
tion, and political abandonment, Will such a cultui*e 
make a people both inteUigent and wtuous, and as 
virtuous as intelligent, — ^this is the question, and a 
vital one it is. 

What now is the inevitable answer to this question ? 
Let us see. "What says history ? All history teaches 
us, that popular advancement in the arts and sciences, 
without a coiTesponding growth in morahty and re- 
ligion, has been always and only an increased refine- 
ment in individual and national wickedness, a more 
skilful and subtle abuse of power, and a change of the 



TnEOFilES : r.EFORMATORY SCHEME. 215 

mere form of civil destruction, fi'om external cnisli and 
demolition, to a secret and subtle, yet sure sap and 
subversion. 

And what says philosophy ? All pliilosophy teaches, 
that, for every increase of power in the subjected ol)- 
ject, there must be a corresponding augmentation of 
strength in the controlling agent, and that every 
advance in individual knowledge, is an augmentation 
of power, for which there can be no coiTesponding 
increase of control, other than that found in a corre- 
sponding gTowth and ascendancy of moral principle. 

And what says simple common sense ? Common 
sense urges, that it is the fact that in all enhghtened 
countries and communities, intellectual and moral 
culture are, in some way or other, so associated or 
run parallel, that it is almost impossible to dissever 
them for the purpose of exemphfication and compar- 
ison ; and that this fact alone is enough to estabhsh 
the existence of a relation between them, at once so 
natural and necessary, that to ignore it either in 
theory or practice, and so to dissever moral instruc- 
tion from intellectual or scientific culture, is simply to 
make an educational system stultify itself. 

Without appealing to specific examples, aiid with- 
out pressing the argument from principles further, it 
must be seen from what has been advanced, that the 
original question ought never to have been entertain- 
ed at aU ; and that the only consistent form ia which 
it can present itself, is rather this, ought moral in- 
struction ever to be neglected or even subordinated 
in our pubHc schools V What position, or what promt- 



216 SCHOOL GOVEENMEXT. 

nence should be assigned to moral instruction? may 
be discussed : that it should have some place and im- 
portance, is a foregone conclusion. 

There are those, however, who will argue, that ob- 
servation by no means shows, that the lack of this 
distinct moral culture in our schools is productive of 
that uncurbed and therefore destructive intelligence 
to which reference has been made. The answer to 
this objection is immediately and conclusively this, 
that the non-occurrence of that dangerous result is 
not due to the non-existence of a natural cause for it ; 
but to the existence of imj)ortant and, to a certain 
extent, redeeming influences operating on our youth 
outside of the schools, and accidentally affording them 
a certain proportion of the lacking moral culture. 

Others may urge, that, even if the moral culture 
were not thus incidentally secured, the laws would 
afford the state an adequate protection against this 
unprincipled or demoralized intelligence. To this it 
is sufficient to answer, that, not only is there outside 
of the exact letter of the laws, a wide margin for the 
most A-icious and dangerous exercise of such intelli- 
gence, but there is in this very intelhgence, and sim- 
ply because it is corrupt, a power equal to the most 
triumphant evasion, if not the actual defiance of the 
laws. 

As to those other objections, urged, perhaps, some- 
times honestly, but intelligently perhaps never, that 
this necessary moral instruction can better be given 
elsewhere, and therefore should be, or that its intro- 
duction into our schools will make them sectarian ; 



THEORIES : MORAL SUASION SCHEISrE. 217 

it is sufficient to say, that tliey do not commend tliem- 
selves enougli to the simplest common sense, to claim 
either a specific notice or a formal refutation. When 
it shall be shown that it is possible, not to say pro- 
fitable, to dissever the intellectual and moral faculties 
in their exercise and development, in this manner ; or 
when it shall appear that ethics, by being, for the 
sake of convenience, considered apart from mental 
science, becomes a body of sectarian dogmas, rather 
than a system of tmiversal principles ; in other words, 
when it shall become clear, that we are to build the 
most wisely and successfully, by first laying up the 
brick, and then elsew^here, and by other hands, in- 
serting the mortar ; or when it shall have become 
manifest, that to lay the brick with the mortar, con- 
temporaneously and conjunctively, is to interfere with 
the rights of both builder and owner, and actually to 
destroy the catholic excellence of the masonry ; — 
when this shall be, the time for a formal notice of 
those objections may have come : come before it can 
not ; and till it can, we dismiss them. 

Of the exclusive Moral Suasion Scheme, so much 
harped upon by certain shallow theorists, no distinct 
notice wiU be taken here, for the reasons, that it is 
substantially identical in spirit and philosophy with 
those already considered ; taken by itself, it is a mere 
castle in the air ; and if it needs to be refuted at aU, 
it is sufficiently met by the general principles herein 
urged at large. 



CHAPTER XI. 

GENEKAL ELEMENTS CONTINUED — DISCIPLINE — PENAL 
CORRECTION, OR PUNISHMENT. 

Punishment defined — Its necessary elements — Authoritative infliction- 
Act of proper authority — Infliction of an actual suffering — Process 
through wJiich effective — Enlightens the intellect — Arouses the sensibili- 
ties — Moves the will— Infliction must be for the support of law, and 
for the general welfare — Punishments classified as Privative and Positive 
— Defined— Privative distinguished, as Primitive and Retractive — Right 
to punish by deprivation sustained — Consequent superiority of con- 
ditional rewards — Necessity for positive punishments — Positive p^m- 
ishments defined — Relation to the privative — Positive classified as Pri- 
vative, Coercive and Compulsive — Coercive described — Essential points 
to be secured — Actual abandonment of the wrong — Correction of its 
evil results — Reparation to the government as such — Voluntariness in 
the whole — Coercive classifi£d, as reprimands, loss of privilege, restraint 
or confinement, corporal punishment, and final exclusion — General 
Pules for infiiction — Positive detection must precede — Punishment 
must be well considered— Must be thorough— Administered with de- 
liberatcness — Must be public — Objections to publicity considered — Spring 
from false sympathy or pride— Publicity necessary to the full eflfect of 
the discipline— Proper infliction of punishment not brutalizing— 
The infliction of the punishment to be followed by moral eflforts — 
Evil of neglecting these— Specific methods— Fov correlative rewards 
and punishments— For public reprimands— For bodily restraint— Ob- 
jectionable restraints — Particular consideration of detention after 
school— Method for corporal punishment— Objectionable inflictions 
—Compulsive correction — Nature and use illustrated— Grounds of its 
reasonableness— Objection to involuntariuess answered— ^"na? exclu- 
sion— Occasiow of its existence— Must be held as a last resort— Is less 
a common necessity than is supposed — Specific method— Must be 
followed by reclamatory efforts— Summary abandonment of ofl'enders 
a social vice. 

Proceeding to the proper discussion of penal cor- 
rection, v/e define punishment to he, — as it is accepted 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : PUNISHMENT. 219 

in tlie common sense of mankind, — tlio authoritative 
infliction, b}^ some properly constituted sovereignty^ 
of some species of pain or suffering upon offenders, 
because of their wilful violations of lawful require- 
ment, and for the sake of sustaining the majesty of 
government, and securing the common weal. 

In the thorough consideration of the several ele- 
ments embraced in the definition, it will be observed, 
first, that punishment must be an authoritative inflic- 
tion, as opposed to mere consequential results. In 
other words, for reasons already discussed at length, 
consequences are not to be accepted as, in any proper 
sense, punishments. 

Again, the infliction must be the act of a properly 
constituted authority. Proceeding from any other 
source than such authority, it loses all legahty and, 
in losing its legality, it becomes simply an abuse or, 
if you will, an outrage. Thus, suppose that the child 
committing some act in known violation of parental 
law, to be caught and chastised by a passer-by ; or a 
public offender to be seized and subjected to summary 
retribution by the private citizen, and in neither case 
would the act be held to be as legitimate, or the inflic- 
tion be counted as punishment. Nay, both of these 
seK-constituted ministers of justice, would be them- 
selves held as transgressors. Nor, indeed, is this ail, 
the act must be that of the proper authority, and no 
other. Thus if, for example, the parent chastises the 
child for some violation of school regulations not at 
all embraced in his own rules or directions, or if, in a 
higher field, one state authority should inflict penal- 



220 SCHOOL GOVERNaiENT. 

ties for crimes committed within the jurisdiction, or 
against the laws of another commonwealth, the act 
would, in both cases, be one of usurpation or tyranny. 

Punishment must, furthermore, involve the inflic- 
tion of something actually counted by the offender as 
an evil ; and as such t must be capacitated to occa- 
sion painful restraint or actual suffering. For reasons 
already noticed as existing in the depraved condition 
and vicious power of the T\all, if government be stop- 
ped short of this extreme of its prerogative in inflic- 
tion, its penal inflictions are, in the majority of cases, 
reduced to a sham and a failure. The susceptibilities 
of the culprit are, of course, not to determiae the na- 
ture or the measure of the infliction ; but, whatever 
the government shall adjudge it to be, it must be a 
something real to the offender, and probably sufficient 
to reach his wi\[ effectively. This, however, is not 
to take ground that, in individual cases, in which 
it may fail to be thus effective, it is to be forborne ; 
for government has other ends in its infliction, other 
than that of the mere correction of the offender. The 
deterriag of the yet innocent, from the commission 
of similar crimes, may be itself a sufficient ground for 
the infliction, even when the offender is already clearly 
hardened beyond the reach of its influence. 

The process through which the punishment is to 
reach and affect either the guilty or the innocent, in 
order that the ends of disciphne may be attained, is 
as follows. In the first place, it is designed to bring 
the intellect to a consciousness of the reality and the 
magnitude of the offense, by presenting to it a posi- 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : PUNISHMENT. 221 

tive symbol of the yiews and feelings of ilie offended 
"Sovereignty. Its language is to this effect ; in the 
measure of the care taken to bring 3'ou to condign 
punishment, and in the measure of the pains inflicted 
upon you, behold the measure of that Avrong which 
you have inflicted upon pure rectitude, and of that 
outrage which you have committed against the maj- 
esty of law. 

Secondly. It is designed to awaken in the sensi- 
bility, a distinct feeling of the reahty and hoinousness 
of the offense committed. This it effects, partly 
through the foregoing influence to enlighten the intel- 
lect, and partly through pressing upon the culprit, in 
a sense of the pains he bears, a feeling of the loss or 
the evil he himseK incurs, and of the necessary folly 
or turpitude of the act which Vv'as an adequate cause 
for the infliction of such suffering. 

Thirdly. Through the intellect and the sensibili- 
ties as already affected, it is designed to reach the 
T\dll, presenting to it motives, from either conviction, 
desire or fear, calculated to restrain or reverse its evil 
purposes, and thus operating to prevent, not only the 
repetition of the evil act for which the punishment is 
inflicted, but also the commission of others for which 
it may be justly demanded. 

The deterring effect of punishment upon the inno- 
cent, is reached through much the same process, dif- 
fering only in this, that the operation is one of obser- 
vation rather than experience. It is, in their case, 
the more hopeful, inasmuch as there is yet no actual 
guilt to cloud the apprehension, to warp the jtidg- 



222 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

ment or benumb tlie feelings. Hence, the suffering, 
thougli only witnessed, sheds a clearer liglit upon the 
offended majesty of the law, upon the magnitude of 
the offense, and upon the bitterness of transgression 
in its individual consequences. 

Finally. The punishment must be inflicted for no 
merely vindictive or even reformatory ends. Its grand 
object is, directly, the sustaining of law, and through 
that, the ultimate preservation of the common wel- 
fare. Whenever it degenerates from this, and is 
made to compass individual or inferior ends alone, 
the punishment becomes less condemnatory of the 
culprit, than of the authority which applies it. 

Passing now to the specific consideration of pun- 
ishments, we classify them as of two general species : 
Privative and Positive. 

Under privative punishment, we include every au- 
thoritative deprivation of rights, pri^dleges or honors, 
of which the pupil has, by his misdemeanors, wrought 
just forfeiture. Of these punishments, it is proper to 
remark that they embrace all of the so-called natural 
reactions that are really valuable ; and their natural 
restriction to this head, is itself a proof of the insuf- 
ficiency of those reactions as a sole means of moral 
disciphne. These punishments, hence, form a sort of 
connecting link between purely consequential evils 
and proper punishments. 

These privative punishments may be considered as 
of two kinds ; Primitive, or the subtraction of such 
rights or privileges as may, either naturally or by the 
action of some antecedent authority, have been confer- 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: PUNISHMENT. 223 

red upon the pupil : and Retractive, or the resumption 
by the teacher of such privileges or honors as may 
have been authoritatively conferred by him, uj)on 
the pupil, either as specific rewards or otherwise. 

As illustratiye of these, may be cited, the depriving 
of the pupil of the right to a recess or play spell ; of 
the privilege of holding some favorite seat, or some 
post of honor in a class ; or of the possession of some 
badge of distinction or token of the teacher's ap- 
j)roval and esteem. Others will naturally occur to 
the thoughtful teacher, either as origiuaUy suggested, 
or as naturally indicated by the pecuhar method of 
reward adopted in his own system of discipline. 

Of the right of the teacher to inflict such depriva- 
tion, there can hardly be any question. As the abso- 
lute conservator of those rights, and author of those 
privileges or honors, the teacher must as truly possess 
a negative, as well as a positive, control over them. 
He must have as truly the power to say, when the 
weKare of the school demands it, these shall not be, 
as to declare, they shall be. Furthermore, all rights 
are guaranteed and all privileges are conferred only 
on the assumed ground that they are to be consistently 
held and employed. Everywhere, under proper gov- 
ernment, the malicious use of these rights or privileges 
to the disadvantage of others or the damage of the 
sovereignty itself, is naturally held to result in either 
their partial or complete forfeiture. Resting, as they 
necessarily do, upon a sp>ecific merit or worthiness, as 
soon as that gives place to its opposite specific de- 
merit or un worthiness, they must fall to the ground 



224 SCHOOL GOTEKNMENT. 

for the mere want of foundation. Certainly, the ex- 
istence of character or conduct which would have 
precluded their creation, must j^rohibit their continu- 
ance. And to this law of resumption there can be 
no exception, save only in those cases in which either 
unavoidably or unwisely they have been, by the au- 
thority itself, made permanent or irrevocable. 

Herein, then, will be discovered a pecuHar evil of 
bestowing permanent gifts as rewards of merit, in- 
stead of resumable j)rivileges, marks of favor or hon- 
orable distinctions, already urged as of superior con- 
sistency and excellence. Bestow^ upon the pupil such 
an absolute gift or prize, and, inasmuch as it cannot 
be resumed, the authority cuts itseK off from the 
opportunity of indicating its displeasure at subse- 
quent transgression, in one of the most effective ways 
possible, and also from the power to hold the subject 
steadily to the principle of continued and progressive 
worthiness as the true law of excellence, in opposition 
to that of mere temporary or desultory goodness. 
Yery clearly, any action on the part of the teacher 
which, as a needless finality, limits his power to re- 
tain a disciplinary hold upon his pupils, so doubly 
important as both a stimulus and a restraint, must 
be, to say the least, exceedingly unwise. 

Hence, the teacher can not be too careful in all 
disciplinary action of this kind, not only to give his 
preference to resumable rewards, but also to make 
the school fully understand that they are held subject 
to such retraction in case of just forfeiture ; and that 
their sole object is not the mere temporary approval 



GENF-T^AL ELEMENTS : PUNISHMENT. 225 

of specific acts, but rather tlie public evincing of a 
desii'e to secure that permanent excellence of charac- 
ter of which these acts appear as the natural and 
steady outworking. The feeUng sought to be aroused 
should be distinctly and invariably this ; these re- 
wards were given, not because this was done, but be- 
cause there was evinced a constant disposition to do 
it ; and so soon as that disposition is wanting, the 
right to hold them will be just as truly gone as would 
be the right to receive them. Wherever, also, this 
principle of conditionality, or this reserved right of 
retraction is understood, so that its exercise does not 
take the pupil by surprise, the resuming of the con- 
ferred favor more powerfuUy sets forth the equity of 
the teacher's administration than did the original 
bestowment ; and for the reason that the latter was a 
grace rather than a duty, and v/as a natural occasion 
of satisfaction on both sides ; but the former is an 
act of duty alone, and, as productive of mutual pain, 
would naturally be shunned, but for the pressing 
claims of higher obligation. 

But it will be seen from the foregoing, that these 
privative punishments are necessarily hmited in their 
apjDhcation to the smaller number of offenses, and 
those of the more venial character. To meet all its 
wants, and to be able to reach effectively the more 
hardened offenders, and the more flagitious acts of 
criminality, the government of the school must be 
empowered to go beyond mere negative punishment ; 
it must have access to those which are positive, and 
which produce, not merely deprivation and diocom- 



22(5 SCHOOL GOVEKaMEXT. 

fort, but wliicli occasion actual sufxering, either bodily 
or mental. 

By positive punisliments, or punisliments proper, 
are to be understood all those actual inflictions by 
the constituted authority, which subject the pupil to 
j)ain either bodily or mental, and which are needful 
for the correction of wrong, and for the maintaining 
of the teacher's sovereignty as tlie conservator of the 
school. 

The transition from privative to positive punish- 
ments is not abrupt. The one rather passes into the 
other by gradation. Hence, privative punishments 
may assume much the character of positive inflictions. 
For example, let the act of deprivation be a simple 
act, and let it occasion no other feeling than a clear 
consciousness of the loss incurred, and the punish- 
ment is purely privative. But couple the act of de- 
privation with circumstances which give it the force 
of a pubhc censure, or a distinct degradation, and 
cause the feelings occasioned by it to be those of 
mortification or remorse, and the punishment becomes 
properly positive. Beyond its bearing upon the fol- 
lo^dng classification, this fact possesses a practical 
importance, as indicating to the teacher a means of 
giving effective force to punishments otherwise purely 
privative, and, as such not unfrequently found to be 
powerless. 

Positive punishments may be classified as of three 
Idnds ; Privative, Coercive and Compidsive. The first 
of these has been indicated Avith sufficient clearness 



GENERAL ELEMENTS I TUNISHMENT. 227 

under tlie preceding head. Its further consideratiou 
will consequently be waived altogether. 

Coercive punishments may be concisely described, 
as such inflictions of pain, either bodily or mental, as 
acting upon the Avill through the sense, the intellect 
and the feehngs, induce a voluntary abandonment 
of the wrong-doing for which discipline is instituted, 
and, as far as is practicable, a proper correction of the 
evils it has occasioned, whether they be indi^ddual or 
general. 

Upon four points herein mentioned, particular 
stress must be laid. First. There must be the ac- 
tual abandonment of the wrong-doing. This is op- 
posed to any merely partial correction of the evil 
course in question. There may be cases in which 
this partial correction is better than nothing ; in which 
that may even have to be accepted as practically all 
that, under the circumstances, can be attained. But 
the government of the school is false to the claims 
of its ov>^n dignity, and of the general welfare, as well 
as to the tiTie interest of the offender, if it rests satis- 
fied with the attainment of any such end. To be 
content with this, except upon practical compulsion, 
is to make itssK, in one sense, a "^particeps crimmis'* 
in whatever of the wrong-doing lies beyond that cor- 
rected. This is clearly illustrated in civil affairs, in 
the neglect of the state to restrain altogether the 
public sale of noxious drinks, instead of contenting 
itself with a system of restrictive licenses. 

Secondly. There must be the proper correction of 
the evils occasioned by the wrong-doing. Abandon- 



228 • SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

ment without reparation, is raere external amend- 
ment. It contains no evidence tliat the real root of 
the transgression has been reached. It is perfectly 
consistent with pure hypocrisy. For the government 
of the school to countenance this last, even indirectly, 
is a vice. In the discipHning of offenders by punish- 
ment, then, no pains must be spared to point out the 
possible modes of making proper reparation, and to 
bring the offender to the full and resolute under- 
taking of that, perhaps, self-sacriiicing, but yet neces- 
sary work. We greatly fear, however, that teachers 
generally, either from a failure to apprehend its pri- 
mary importance, or fiom indisposition to undertake 
the necessary moral effort, fail to do anything of the 
kind. Such a failure is, so far as it goes, a positive 
pronunciation against their fitness to govern. 

Thirdly. The reparation must just as distiuctl}^ 
embrace the wrong done to the government of the 
school, as that inflicted upon any of its individual 
members. Too commonly the offending member of 
the school attains no other idea of his act than that 
embraced in its relation to an individual, either some 
feUow-pupil, if it is a personal offense, or if not, then 
the teacher alone. He reaches no conception of its 
character beyond and above everything individual, as 
an offense against the whole school either as such, or 
as represented in its government. And yet this last 
is the vital point. In no organized community, can 
crime be crime, only or chiefly against the individual. 
Like a blow struck agaiust any part of a compact 
body, it vibrates tlirough the whole ; and by just so 



GEXEr..\L ELEMENTS : TUNISHMENT. 229 

much as that body stretches out on every side, by 
just so much do its vibrations tremble along succes- 
sive waves of concentric relation, more or less sensi- 
bly affecting the whole. It is the ignorant or the 
studious oversight of this principle, which inspires the 
pseudo-humanity of that dangerous class whose sym- 
pathy for pubhc criminals is, at the present day, in- 
fecting and debasing the popular notions of justice. 
Let the teacher, then, bear this in mind, and see to it, 
that in the school, this higher idea of the relation of 
offenses is understood and felt, and the consequent 
reparation demanded and made. 

Lastly. Let not the voluntary element be over- 
looked or dispensed with. Amendment which is 
strictly forced, is sometimes all that can be reached. 
Even as such, it is better than none. It externally 
sustains the majesty of law, and shuts off the evil 
example. Sophistry sometimes pleads against this 
principle, the analogies of nature, as in the case of 
disease or danger, where mere external improvement 
may be itself injurious. But it is a lying philosophy 
which reasons thus from the physical to the moral. 
Better is that reasoning which, appealing to the case 
of evils like those of licentiousness or drunkenness, 
profanity or sabbath-breaking, finds that though, 
in their secret hiding-places, they are beyond the 
reach of the law, yet, in their very seclusion, they 
attest the virtue and the power of the law, and are 
forced to forego the baleful exercise of a wide-spread 
influence and an unblushing example. 

Nevertheless, generally, and especially in those sa- 



230 SCHOOL GO\T£PvIn]\IENT. 

cred precincts, — ^the family, tlie school, and the church, 
that correction which lays the ax " at the roofc of the 
tree," is better, and is to be studiously sought. Here, 
higher and hoher aims than those of mere legahty, 
must predominate. In these, then, authority must 
not rest content until, with its apphances and influ- 
ences, it has reached the heart and secured that that, 
in its voluntary obedience to the claims of pure rec- 
titude, shall " magnify the law and make it honor- 
able." And the lesson herein taught the teacher is 
this ; that while, in the use of legitimate punishments 
he more immediately coerces the offending will, he 
is not to rest satisfied, until coercion has become 
transfigured in true and permanent submission. 
Great concern, painful severity, and much benevolent 
and pains-taking afterwork may this entail upon him. 
But it is the law of his office, and let him cheerfully 
accept its issues. 

Passing from these considerations bearing on our 
definition of coercive punishment, we observe that 
in its several species, it may consist of these general 
forms of infliction, namely : j9«^?ic reprimands either 
Avith or without temporaiy exclusion from rights and 
privileges; subjection to personal restraint or incon- 
venience ; hodihj chastisement, or corporal punish- 
ment proper ; and final exclusion from the privileges 
and precmcts of the school. The specific nature, 
restriction and apphcation of the several kinds of 
punishment will, for the sake of convenience be con- 
sidered together, under their respective heads. 

It will, however, be first mcumbent on us to attend 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : PUNISHMENT. 231 

carefully to those general principles which must gov- 
ern the teacher, in the use of all the several species 
of coercive punishments. These principles are, to a 
quahfiecl extent, aj)plicable to all the foregoing kinds 
of punishment ; but they are more especially consid- 
ered here with reference to those which, as positively 
coercive, are more important in their nature, and 
more serious in their contingencies. 

First. Whatever punishment it is proposed to in- 
flict, it must be preceded by positive detection or 
proper investigation. Without this, there can, of 
course, be no certainty that the teacher's decision is 
righteous, and the punishment just. Of the necessity 
of these, little need be said. They are vital to the 
interests of all concerned, from the government, down. 
Neither must unjust punishment be inflicted, nor 
must punishment be unjustly inflicted. To this there 
is no alternative. 

And yet, it is not unfrequently the case that the 
latter wrong is perpetrated by the teacher. How 
often, — shame, that it must be said ! — does the blow 
fall upon the mere victim of mischief, rather than 
upon the real, though concealed offender ! For ex- 
ample, how often does a day pass in our schools, with- 
out witnessing such justice as this ? A pupil natu- 
rally impulsive and brimful of giggle, is purposely 
set a-laughing by some cool-headed, long-faced rogue 
in his neighborhood, who carefully screens himself 
from the teacher's observation. Sequel, under these 
'second Daniels come to judgment', — the helpless 
laugher is punished, sometimes regardless of his 



232 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

defense, and the mischief maker goes scot-fi'ee. It 
is simply a falsifying of terms, to call this govern- 
ment. 

Secondly. All such punishments must be well con- 
sidered, and with sharp reference, not only to their 
nature and apphcation, but also to their possible re- 
sults. This involves the exercise of special care that 
no material injury, either bodily or mental, shall re- 
sult to the pupil. It also demands that the teacher 
shall have taken a just measure, not only of the tme 
merits of the case, but also of the possible demands 
of the infliction upon his own strength or firmness. 
Nothing can be more unfortunate, than for the teacher 
to attempt the infliction of punishment, and to dis- 
cover at length, that he has not rightly estimated the 
refractoriness to be subdued. He will either come 
out himself half-conquered, or if ultimately the victor, 
only such, at the expense of a painfuUy unexpected 
conflict. Of the two e'sals of inconsiderateness, it is 
doubtful which is the w^orst, the infliction of punish- 
ment unduly severe, or that pitiably insufficient or 
half-successfully resisted. 

Thirdly. Punishment must be thorough and effect- 
ive. It must be no paltering sham. Once well-con- 
sidered and rightly began, it must go through to the 
bitter end. For example, if the pupil is to be sub- 
jected to detention after school, for the performance 
of some neglected duty, let that detention go on in- 
exorably till the work is done, even if it runs out of 
the daylight into the evening shadows. This par- 
ticular point is pressed with great earnestness, bo- 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : PUNISHMENT. 233 

cause it is believed tliat no species of punishment is 
more common in oiu' schools than this of detention, 
and that none can be found more commonly a prac- 
tical failure. And it is httle to its credit, that it is 
unconsciously chosen because it favors an escape 
fi'om the use of severer but more effective punish- 
ments, and because it admits of some ultimate eva- 
sion of its own real demands and just extension. It 
is no more to its credit, that its failure is due either 
to the teacher's want of firmness in carrying it out, 
or to his weak ■v\dllingness to escape the pressui'e of 
its own inconvenience upon himself. 

If corporal punishment is to be applied, the same 
general principle holds good. All the proper pre- 
Hmiaary steps having been taken, the wise and just 
penalty must be inflicted, and until the desked sub- 
mission is secured. Half-way punishment is a fatal 
blunder. It, not only fails of the true end, but ag- 
gTavates the assailed evil. Two blows may only 
toughen the refractoriness, when ten would reduce it 
to tenderness and submission. Half-complete pun- 
ishment is, furthermore, false meTcj. Ten blows 
may secure a finality, when two would only prepare 
the way for twenty in the future. A most pitiable 
conclusion of administered disciphne is that which 
compels the teacher to exclaim within his heart : 

" We liave scotclied tlie snake ; not killed it." 

Fourthly. The punishment must be administered 
■with, due dehberateness and resolution. This involves 
three points ; proper preparation, deliberateness in 



234 SCHOOL GOVEKNLIENT. 

application, and resolution in the manner of carrying 
it out. It is equally unfortunate for the teacher to 
undertake to inflict punishment without full prepara- 
tion for possible contingencies ; to proceed to the 
work in haste or passionate heat ; or to evince in its 
prosecution, anything like hesitation or haK-regret. 

Hence, if a lengthy and persistent detention of the 
offender is to be instituted, let the parent be, if pos- 
sible, duly notified so that no luidue anxiety will be 
occasioned at home ; let everything necessary to 
the cool carr^ang out of the teacher's purpose be 
provided at the school, and then let him proceed with 
calm and imperturbable patience and firmness to the 
end. Or if corporal punishment is to be inflicted, and 
the case bids fair to be a severe one, let the parent 
be notified or even consulted and made to feel the 
just demands of the case ; let the proper appKances 
be provided beforehand, and then let the whole, 
however painful, be earned through with immovable 
coolness and steadiness, to the very end. With re- 
ference to the second point especially, let no teacher 
resort to such pitiful de\dces (sometimes even osten- 
tatiously practiced,) as that of j)unisliing impromptu, 
and sending pupils, on the instant, to cut the necessary 
rod for the occasion. It is the next vice to that of 
displaying a whip always, to use a heraldic phrase, 
" rampant gardant." 

Fiftlily. With regard to publicity, the general law 
can only be : as is the offense, so must be the correc- 
tion. Given a purely private ofiense, if such can be, 
one exerting no public influence and susceptible of 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : PUNISHMENT. 235 

private coiTection, aud the institution of open in- 
vestigation or tlie pubKc infliction of punishment, 
must cany on its face the appearance of either an 
indiscretion or an abuse. But on the same principle, 
an open offense, affecting the general weKare, and 
exerting a pubhc influence, must, with few exceptions, 
be as pubhcly investigated and corrected. Hence, 
generally, there must be no discipline in secret, for 
offenses committed upon the house-top. And the 
law applies equally to the various species of punish- 
ment, reprimands, restraint, chastisement and ex- 
pulsion. 

We are aware that strong ground is sometimes 
taken against this publicity. That ground, however, 
is not tenable. The secret occasion for taking it is 
itself significant. Sometimes it is httle less than a 
false sympathy for the personal pride of the offender. 
But if he had not seK-respect enough to forbear the 
commission of the evil act, what claim has he to so 
sensitive a regard for his reputation under the inflic- 
tion of the just penalty ? Is not his truest, and, un- 
der the cii'cumstances, only possible honor, that of 
manfully acknowledging the wrong and submitting to 
the fuh demands of justice ? Sometimes, again, the 
objection to the pubHc infliction of punishment, is 
either a similar regard for parental pride, or a con- 
cern with reference to parental vindictiveness. If it 
be the former, the answer is as before ; the true con- 
servation of family honor is to be found only in the 
thorough and manly endorsement of the fuh claims of 
justice, and the unflhichiag acceptance of whatever 



236 SCHOOL GOVEIiNMENT. 

is necessary to a complete and final correction of the 
evil. So far as tlie second motive is concerned, it is 
unworthy in the teacher to regard it. Let him do 
justice though the heavens fall. 

Still further, the objections too often rest, really, 
though unconsciously, upon the mere reformatory 
notion of discipline, which has already been seen to 
be en'oneous. If the administration of discipUne is 
for the preservation of the innocent, no less than for 
the correction of the guily, manifestly, the pains and 
penalties incurred as the result of wrong-doing, must 
be as pubhc as the offense. Shut them up from the 
observing eye of the commonwealth, and how are its 
members to learn that " the way of transgressors is 
hard ?" The very " intimations of nature," more often 
than otherwise, sustain the general principle that, to 
secure the mdest and best influence, the evil con- 
sequences of wrong-doing must, sooner or later, be- 
come pubhc. Indeed, nature sometimes visits even 
secret transgression, with open punishment. 

With regard to the pubhc infliction of corj^oral 
punishment, the cry is sometimes raised, that it is re- 
prehensible, because brutalizing. To this we reply, 
that the conclusion is based upon a mere assumption. 
It is not the proper infliction of this species of punish- 
ment, that is brutalizing ; it is only its abuse. Let 
the infliction of such punishment be characterized by 
undue frequency, by needless roughness or excess, or 
by fierce passion, and doubtless it vnl\, in some part, 
go to harden and brutahze the nature. But so does 
the sight of human suffering and sorrow, when they 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: PUNISHMENT. 237 

come to be pressed too frequently upon our sensibili- 
ties or are inseparably bound up with groYeling and 
depraved associations. Even the death of the human 
being, when crowded upon the soul under the sweep 
of the pestilence or the clash of the battle field, or 
when it glares out from the drunken carousal or the 
bed of vi<ce and rottenness, — even that otherwise, 
tender and soul-subduing spectacle may, under such 
circumstances, exert only a benumbing and debasing 
influence. But who cries out and demands that na- 
ture and society should, therefore, fling the pall of 
isolation and secrecy over its legitimate occurrence ? 
There is, however, another grave oversight com- 
mitted by those who pronounce thus summarily 
against public punishment in the school. In their 
anxiety about the immediate, they ignore the ultimate. 
They fail to inquire whether in this proposed sub- 
traction from punishment, of one of its most effective 
elements of power as a means of general prevention, 
the way is not opened for a practical demorahzation 
of the school, as it regards its notions of crime and 
its retributions, that is itself brutalization in fact, if 
not in the accepted form. Is he who, through a false 
pity, pride or fear, i^vdthdraws from active influence 
upon the school, the highest possible warning and 
safeguard against transgression, doing any less to 
brutahze its moral sensibihty, than is done by him 
w^ho, perhaps too rudely, shocks that sensibility to 
allow of its most wholesome reaction? We urge, 
then, that the objection has no valid force whatever 
against public punishment as properly administered ; 



238 SCHOOL GO^-EENIMENT. 

that is, justly, deliberately, thorouglily, and witli due 
pains to secure the subsequent moral results. 

Lastly. Whatever punishment is inflicted, the in- 
fliction must by no means be accepted as the end of 
the teacher's opportunity and responsibility. Hardly 
could a graver mistake be committed. As well might 
the physician who has by powerful remedies broken 
the fever, suspend all further treatment of the case. 
Mere coercion is not the highest end. That is rather 
persuasion. But coercion is often the necessary pre- 
parative for persuasion. Negotiations and amicable 
arrangements are often impracticable until after a 
satisfactory trial of arms. Punishments, then, are 
sometimes chiefly effective as opening the way for the 
unimpeded application of moral influences. Hence, 
they should be regarded by the teacher, rather as 
the rough ladder leading to the only hopeful landing 
place of moral suasion. Let him, then, see to it that 
he does not rest content with merely having reached 
that landing place, instead of zealously pressing up 
the new and nobler ascent which the former has just 
rendered practicable. Every infliction of coercive 
disciphne must, then, be carefully followed up and 
supplemented by sound suggestions and fiiendly in- 
fluences, until, if possible, to the subjugation of the 
will, there has been added the winning of the heart. 

And this subsequent use of moral means rises in 
its imperative claims, just in proportion to the im- 
mediate severity or aggravating circumstances of the 
punishment inflicted. Certainly, the more critical the 
ease, and the more ^^olent the treatment, the more 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : PUNISHMENT. 239 

pressing the need for the watchful and unwearied ap- 
phcation of the subsequent restoratives. He, then, 
who fails to perceive this last responsibility, or who 
lacks either the patience or the firmness to press for- 
ward in its discharge to the complete result, practi- 
cally sounds a retreat in the midst of a half-won bat- 
tle, and accepts the issue of a substantial defeat. 
And this is the fatal error of most of the discipline 
administered in oui' schools. To this alone, is charge- 
able much of the need of frequent punishment, much 
of its failure to prove effective, and much of its al- 
leged brutahzing tendency. Let teachers ponder 
this well. 

It may perhaps be objected by some, that all this 
is calculated to render the administration of disci- 
phne in the school, too compHcated and laborious. 
We answer, not at all, if all this is necessary to its 
consistency, efficiency, and most benign success. 
Furthermore, the more of a real, pains-taking labor 
it is, the less likely will the teacher be to enter upon 
the work of discipHning offenses hastily or for trivial 
causes. The grand law of the whole argument is 
summed up in this indisputably just maxim ; less 
fi-equency but greater thoroughness. 

Beyond these general rules, there are ceriain spe- 
cific points bearing on these various kinds of punish- 
ment that claim attention. 

Fii'st. Correlative rewards and punishmenls should 
rest upon similar bases. If you bestow a reward for 
a specific excellence, you may punish by retracting 
the rew^ard, but only for delinquency in the same direc- 



240 SCHOOL gom!:enment. 

tion. Thus, you maj punisli for bad scholarship by 
resuming a reward bestowed for good scholarship, 
but not at all by retracting one conferred for good 
behavior. The last would be a practical injustice. 

Secondly. Public reprimands should set forth 
clearly the personal unworthiness and the public in- 
juriousness of the act censured, and should, as the 
case may be, be more or less pointed and severe. 
But they should never be sarcastic or vituperative. 
No true force is gained by such means, and they 
seriously impair the teacher's dignity and dispas- 
sionateness of manner in the administration of dis- 
cipline. Care should be taken to guard the school 
against the error of summing up the censure in the 
act of its pronunciation. It must be understood to 
hold good until, upon amendment, the offender is 
formally released therefrom. In the meantime, while 
he is not to be treated unkindly, he is to be held as 
standing in disfavor. In this direction, some accom- 
panying restriction of privilege will be seen to be of 
service, inasmuch as it affords a sensible and abiding 
spnbol of the existing censure. 

Thirdly. Bodily restraint or confinement as to 
either position or place must be simply such ; it must 
not be conjoined with contemptible, alarming, or mis- 
chievous adjuncts. Stand the offender upon the floor 
in noticeable isolation from his fellows, if need be ; 
but do not stoop to those abominations practiced of 
old time, such as adorning him with leather spec- 
tacles, spht sticks, or a fool's cap, or loading him 
with billets of wood, or forcing him to stand with his 



GENERAL ELESEENTS I PUNISHMENT. 2-11 

fiDger upou some crack in the floor, — to liim, in a 
verj literal sense, the "crack of doom." These are 
not only needless, but also base and even cowardly 
devices. We say cowardly, for more often than 
otherwise, they are chosen because they are a means 
of dodging the infliction of corporal punishment, or 
because those upon whom they are imposed are either 
imable to resist, or dare not in any way protest against 
the indignity. So too, with regard to separate con- 
finement, avoid immuring the offender in some filthy 
or dark closet or apartment. It is not well, for any 
purpose of correction, to attack a pupil's constitu- 
tional courage, or his acquii^ed habits of neatness. 
The reasons are obvious. 

We have already noticed somewhat particularly, 
the use of detention after school as a punishment. 
That the current method pursued mth regard to it, 
is radically defective and needs to be reformed al- 
together, must be apparent to the thoughtful teacher. 
Instead of resorting to it with foolish frequency, con- 
ducting it so that it is sure to be as great an annoy- 
ance to the teacher as it is to the pupil, and cutting 
it summarily short at the occurrence of the first pos- 
sible excuse for so doing, how much better for a 
course to be pursued, somewhat as follows. Having 
a just occasion for a thorough detention of a delin- 
quent pupil, let the teacher close his school, send 
notice of the detention to the parents, if he has not 
aj)prized them of it beforehand, and then calmly 
stating to the offender precisely what he intends and 
expects, let him set himself quietly about some ap- 



242 . SCHOOL GO-V-ERNMENT. 

pareiitly consistent and earnest employment, and 
without concern or uneasiness, await tlie end. Sooner 
than stop short of its full attainment, let him, if need 
be, bring forward both lunch and hghts, share them 
pleasantly with his prisoner, and go on as before. A 
cool preparation and persistence like this, will almost 
invariably bring the culprit to terms. When this 
point has been properly attained, let the teacher lay 
aside the stern character of the ruler, and as a friend 
calmly and kindly confer with the offender upon the 
evil nature of the course he has pursued, and exhort 
him to new and better things. Then let him put up 
his work, close the school-house, and, if practicable, 
accompany the pupil home, by the way appearing 
only as the friend, and seeming to be utterly oblivious 
of what has just passed. His presence will keep the 
pupil thoughtful and under restraint until the period 
for any passionate outbreak has passed, and his for- 
bearing silence as to the discipline ^dll tend to awaken 
grateful regard. And, subsequently, let nothing be 
said about the affair, to the school. It is not neces- 
sary. The details of the straggle and the result will 
find their own utterance, and with comments quite 
calculated to impress upon its members, the wisdom 
of prompt obedience. To some teachers, we doubt 
not, all this will seem like pure extravagance. But 
what a pity it is, that in the use of punishment, in 
both the family and the school, there is not more of 
the extravagance of thoroughness, and less of the 
extravagance of idle frequency and stupid failure. 
Fourthly. With regard to chastisement or coi-j^oral 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: PUNLSIIMENT. 243 

pimisliment proper, it is premised that we here coii- 
temphite only the legitimate and divinely established 
use of the rod. There have been found not a few 
who, without any warrant either rational or revealed, 
have gone beyond this and hit upon implements and 
apphances that might have made the users thereof 
exclaim : 

" Come seeling niglit. 
Scarf up tlie tender eye of pitiful day." 

These were they who, finding a hard, rough-hand 
in readiness, brandished it hke Talus' iron flail about 
the ears and head of the pitiful culprit to the endan- 
gering of his very brains ; who, possessing a sinewy 
arm, gTasped the helpless victim and, wrenching him 
from his seat, spun him around hke a demon-driven 
top, in indescribable gyrations upon the mid-floor, 
and perhaps ended with dashing him down more like 
a billet than a human being ; or who, clutching the 
massive ferrule, either hurled it Hke Jove's thunder- 
bolt, at doomed heads in the distance, or, seizing the 
tender and half-knit hand, beat out with quick re- 
morseless blows the fiery grain of pain, if not of peni- 
tence, upon the sad thresliing-floor of the quivering 
palm. 

For such punishments there is no stint of condem- 
nation. Irrational and base, they might produce fear, 
but could create no reverence or regard for govern- 
ment. Indiscriminate and unsparing, they alike 
crushed the innocent and weak, and exasperated the 
robust and daring. Blind and dead to the presence 
and office-w^ork of the understanding and the con- 



244 SCHOOL GO^^ERNMENT. 

science, they brutalized tlie feelings, and often beat 
down all that was sweetest and noblest in the child's 
nature. It is to be hoped that these are already 
numbered with the things that were. 

"With regard to corporal punishment in its proper 
form as already indicated, much the same course is 
to be pursued as in the case of restraint or confine- 
ment. Whatever of antecedent j)reiDaration, of care- 
ful explanation, of calm dehberateness, of cool and 
thorough persistence, and of subsequent moral effort, 
was needed there, is still more necessary here. But it 
must all be natural and real, not pretentious or with a 
studied attempt at effect. Any display of preparations, 
or tantahzing delay of proceedings, or pompous 
solemnity of manner, intended to alarm the offender 
or overawe the school, is worse than weak and ridi- 
culous ; it's " villainous, and shows a j^itiful ambition 
in the fool that uses it." 

From this, it will be seen that, for obvious reasons, 
no hasty infliction of punishment is here contemplated. 
Still it is not denied that cases may arise in v.liich 
summary punishment must be inflicted ; as, for ex- 
ample, when the offender is of a character hkely to be 
strengthened in resistance by delay ; when there is a 
prevailing impression that the teacher's dehberateness 
is caused by a temporizing fear to punish ; or when, 
from lack of physical power, he must take his anta- 
gonist at an advantage. Here, it may be necessary 
for the stream to " be quick and ^dolent." But these 
are the exceptional cases, and are to be avoided if 
possible. The teacher must be his own judge as to 



GENEKAL ELEMENTS : PUMSHMEKT. 245 

the real occiiiTence of an}' of these contingencies. In 
case lie accepts one of them as instant, let the blow 
be sudden and decisive, and only sudden that it may 
be decisive. 

It is sometimes both proper and necessary in the 
administration of discijDline, in the school, to go 
beyond proper coercion, and make use of sheer com- 
pulsion. That is, the teacher, instead of bringing 
the pupil by coercive measures to the voluntary per- 
formance of the requii^ed act, may apply sheer force 
and, whether he wills or not wills, may compel him 
to do it. This species of discipline is quite restricted 
in its apphcation, and is, only under certain contm- 
gencies, and in a modified sense, punishment. But 
being a disciphnary corrective so far as it goes ; 
tending to inculcate the necessity of submission to 
the higher power ; and not unfi'equently causing the 
pain of feehng ignominiously overcome and justly 
compelled to submit, it is not improper to consider it 
under the head of punishments. 

The nature and occasion for such a species of in- 
fliction may be made clearer by illustration. Take, 
in the first instance, a very young pupil, who has yet 
no adequate idea of suj^erior power as in authority 
over him, and who may be hardly mature enough to 
comprehend the just claims of authority as rightly 
constitufced. Suppose such an incipient representative 
of our ungovernable democracy to set himself up pre- 
cociously as one of the sovereigns, — a by no means 
rare occurrence in either the family or the school. 
He is, for example, directed to take a certain seat, 



246 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

or, perhaps, to sit clown somewhere, and refuses to 
obej. Here it may be both proper and sufficiemt for 
the teacher to take him and, by the simple exercise 
of force, compel him to take the prescribed place. A 
similar emergency may arise in the case of an older 
pupil who has been too exclusively controlled by 
force at home, or who, in the overweening sense of 
his own strength, doubts the teacher's possession of 
the power to master him, and to compel him to sub- 
mit. Here, as before, the teacher may with perfect 
consistency resort to simple compulsion ; he may, by 
the mere exercise of superior strength, force the delin- 
quent to perform the required act, — the act of course 
as in the former case, being one of a kind properly 
within reach of force. 

While on general prmciples, or if too largely em- 
ployed, such a species of discipline may seem objec- 
tionable, it is within the range above indicated, quite 
reasonable. It is not always desirable, as in the first 
case supposed, to inflict corporal punishment on the 
extremely young. Nay, in many cases there is no 
need of applying the rod at all; the thoroughly 
attained consciousness that the teacher has ample 
power to enforce his demands, being quite sufficient 
to prevent further attempts at resistance. Beyond 
this, there are minds, not only juvenile but adult, in 
which the primary idea of supremacy is simply that 
of superior power. This is, of course, not the truest 
idea, nor the one ultimately to be established. But 
wherever it prevails, the capacity and the rectitude 
of the authority as resting on this basis alone, must 



GENERAL ELEMENTS: PUNISHMENT. 247 

be practically demonstrated, otherwise the way is not 
open for the effective development of the higher basis 
of the authority .as properly constituted and as essen- 
tial to the general weKare. Hence, satisfy the rebel- 
lious subject, that the power exists and Tsdll be un- 
hesitatingly apphed, and one important point, — to 
hi 711 the one fii'st important point, — has been gained. 
His apjDrehension, cleared as to the question of power, 
will be more open to the force of other and higher 
considerations, into the proper apjoreciation of which 
he viiR speedily grow. 

If it be objected that in such cases the submission 
secured is destitute of any voluntary character and is 
so far defective ; it is sufficient to reply, that under 
the force of the conviction already gained that re- 
sistance is futile, the subsequent obedience will be- 
come voluntary, and that, while it is not voluntary 
upon the best or ultimate basis, yet the tendency of 
all voluntary obedience is toward a groTvdng recogni- 
tion of the simple rightfulness of authority and of the 
worthiness of pure rectitude. One of the worst effects 
of unconquered insubordination is, not that it estab- 
lishes the will in its rebellion, but that it works a 
growing paralysis of the judgment and the reason, so 
that the offender becomes incapable of discovering 
the true relations of himself and his evil conduct, and 
of apprehending the nature and the claims of proper 
rectitude. 

The specific rules for the application of this species 
of discipline, both immediate and subsequent, beiag 



24:8 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

the same as in the case of the other kinds of punish- 
ment, their consideration here is Tmnecessary. 

With regard to Jinal exclusion as a means of cor- 
rection, it is to be remarked at the outset, that so far 
as the great body of our public schools are concerned, 
but little need be said of it in this place, since the 
prerogative of applying it, is lodged quite exclusively 
in the hands of the higher authorities, the teacher 
having little to do in the premises, beyond the mere 
making of the proper representation as to its necessity. 
In certain private schools, however, which are the 
sole property of the teacher, it may be otherwise. 
Here, the whole power lying in the hands of the 
teacher, he may have the right to exclude, just as 
truly as to inflict any other species of punishment. 
In still another class of schools generally assumed as 
of a higher order, — in this direction what they are 
only because of the higher pride or prejudice of the 
patrons, — ^the prerogative of exclusion passes wholly 
into the hands of the teacher, and becomes common 
and necessary, simply because he is practically pre- 
cluded from the use of its only substitute and alter- 
native, corporal punishment. On these accounts, it 
is proper to bestow upon this species of correction, a 
somewhat careful consideration. 

First, then, final exclusion, wliich is a punishment 
only under the same limitation which marked the last 
species, must always be held as a last resort and to 
be accepted as a necessity, only when all other and 
better appHances, faithfully apphed, have proved 
utterly futile. And for the two reasons, first, that it 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : PUNISHMENT. 249 

not imfrequently cuts tlie teacher off from the power 
to benefit or save the offender ; and, secondly, because 
it mvolves a practical confession of failure on the 
part of the government of the school, to secure the 
best and noblest ends of discipline, just as the am- 
putation of a diseased limb is an acknowledgement 
of the failure and further powerlessness of the j)roper 
curative agency. It is, in short, a practical defeat, 
since wdiatever "sdctory it may secure, it is not the one 
sought by the authority : the result is not one of 
proper and wholesome subjugation ; it is the conquest 
of extermination. Hence, no true teacher will have 
recourse to it, except he is reduced to it as an absolute 
and somewhat humiliating necessity. 

Secondly. Excepting perhaps in those schools in 
which corporal punishment is forbidden, the occasions 
for its use are less common, than is often supposed. 
It is hardly to be doubted that it is often accepted 
as imperative, either because the teacher lacks real 
force in the use of other means of disciphne ; because 
he is of too hasty or arbitrary a temperament ; or 
because he is indisposed to undertake patiently and 
resolutely, the perhaps lengthy and painful struggle 
necessary to a victory through the use of other and 
better means. "We have in mind two cases occurring 
in our own early experience, which we can now clearly 
trace to the first of these causes, immaturity and lack 
of thorough acquaintance Avith the v/ork to be done. 
We recaU also a later case of a most marked char- 
acter, in which a seemingly hopeless young man was, 
through the use of the proper patience and tact, re- 

11* 



250 SCHOOL GOVEENMEIST. 

duced to perfect control and won to a real and most 
friendly regard. And yet this very young man was, by 
his very next teacher, and for no greater insubordi- 
nation, summarily excluded from the school, with 
certainly no better results to the latter, and to the 
entire destruction of that teacher's influence over 
him. In this case, the course pursued w^as due to no 
lack of power or experience, for both were of a supe- 
rior order, but to an arbitrariness of temper gi^owing 
out of an excessive sensibility to the claims of pure 
justice. We doubt not a careful review of their own 
experience would bring the conviction of most teach- 
ers to this same self-judgment. 

Thirdly. When exclusion has become a tiaie neces- 
sity, if it be pubhc, it is to be administered according 
to the same general rules already suggested under 
the head of coercive punishments. Its specific 
method is the same with that of pubhc censure. If 
the exclusion is to be private, as is most commonly 
the case in those schools in which it takes the place 
of corporal punishment, its form is so anomalous, 
that its specific method must be det(^rmined alto- 
gether by the judgment of the teacher, as gtiided by 
the particular circumstances of the case. 

Lastly. When exclusion has been resorted to, let 
the teacher by no means accept it as necessarily a 
finahty. Possibly, he may yet in some way be able 
to reach the offender for the purpose of reformatory 
effort. If any such way be open, let him seek out 
the excluded member, and piivately press upon him 
the unworthiness of sitting down either stubbornlv 



GENERAL ELEMENTS : PUNISHMENT. 251 

or stoli(.ny Tinder the burdeu of the inflicted disgrace ; 
open to his mind the practicability of reclaiming his 
position and redeeming his character ; and urge upon 
him the inherent nobleness of a resolute effort at 
amendment. When the teacher becomes reasonably 
assui'ed that these considerations are properly felt, 
and that rei)aration and refonnation will be heartily 
attempted, let him take measures to secure the re- 
versal of the decree of exclusion, and effect the res- 
toration of the offender to liis former place. In some 
cases it may be well, wath the private consent of the 
proper authorities, to reinstate him quietly upon 
trial, reserving the formal restoration to such a time 
as may have sufficed to evince his sincerity and prob- 
abihty of success in the direction of pennanent 
amendjnent. If the teacher is successful in these 
endeavors, his victory is signal and cannot fail to 
sustain powerfully both the vigor and the benevo- 
lence of his administration. Still we insist that the 
better factory is that won, as previously counseled, 
before and T^ithout exclusion. 

The overlooking of this last grand principle is not 
confined to the precincts of the school ; it is one too 
painfully common throughout society, to which fact 
the teacher is doubtless largely indebted for his own 
tendency in this du-ection. To the thoughtful mind, 
there will readily occur the sorrowful spectacle of 
many a difficult and abortive attempt at the reclama- 
tion of the fallen who have been summarily excluded 
by society from its pale, and abandoned to their fate. 
And the con^sdction can hardJy be escaped that had 



252 SCHOOL GOVEROrENT. 

they been seized upon with tlie sanie resolution and 
benevolence, while they were yet Avithin sight of tiie 
lost Eden of blessing, and painfully alive to their 
present degradation and impending ruin, the moment 
of imminent and priceless opportunity would have 
been won, and they would have been found despair- 
ingly eager to snatch at the feeblest chance of re- 
demption. But no ; the subHme and touching lesson 
taught by the Great Teacher in the case of the adul- 
terous woman, is lost upon the higher virtue and 
severer rectitude of human society; and so, multi- 
tudes of those, originally the noblest and the most 
lovely, are consigned to a doom which makes the 
pitying soul sicken and cry out with mingled indig- 
nation and anguish. 

It must not be understood, however, that in press- 
ing these considerations, the gi'ound is taken that 
this noble reformatory effort is, in either society or 
the school, the proper work of government as such. 
It should be heartily countenanced and seconded by 
government : but is not to be authoritatively under- 
taken by it. It belongs projoerly within the province 
of individual or associated pliilanthropy. 



CHAPTEK XII. 

APPLICATION OF PEINCIPLES TO SPECIFIC SCHEIVIES OP 
DISCIPLINE AND TO DEPAKTMENTAL SCHOOLS. 

Occasion for examining specific schemes — Relf-government method — Gen- 
eral objections — Self-government in the school of two kinds, — partial 
and complete — Objections to the first — Practically an imposition — Ob- 
jections to the second — Still a delusion — Overburdens the teacher — De- 
stroys true ideas of government — Distracts the pupil's attention — ■ 
Tends to dissatisfaction — Self-reporting scheme — General nature — Re 
stricted use allowed — Objections, to the scheme — Teacher evades his own 
duty — ^Impairs the pupil's moral sense — Destructive of faith in the 
teacher's rule — Demerit mark scheme — Its features — Subdivided into 
Pure Merit Scheme, Mixed Form, and Pure Demerit Scheme — 3Ierit 
scheme — Pi'oper method characterized — Its practical difficulties — Mixed 
form — General objections — To be treated as a demerit scheme — Pecxt- 
liar features of the pure demerit viethod — Evils of the method — Based on 
the false principle of depression — Child apt to be left in ignorance of 
its real significance — Tempts the teacher to neglect to inform him — 
Leads to minute rules — Fails to evince the real relation of offense and 
punishment — Too liable to irregular, hasty, and unjust marking — 
Peculiar difficulty resulting from the use of two rolls, one of scholar- 
ship, and one of standing — Only proper use to be made of rolls of 
standing — The application of the demerit mark scheme to higher schools 
— Its difficulties — Sometimes, nevertheless, a necessity — Specific rules 
for its use — Proper- government for adult schools, that of influence — Its 
obstacles and its aids — Departmental schools — Classified as Lower and 
Higher — Kinds distinguished — DiflTerences in organization — Theoret- 
ical and current — Specijic rules for government in the loicer species — • 
Subordinate should be the ruler in his own field— Should govern 
in harmony with the general method of the school — Principal should 
not make the subordinate a mere cipher — Should, in punishing, only 
act as an executive agent for the suhonVmOitc— General directions f(^r 



254: SCHOOL GOVEEKMENT. 

the higher order of departme7ital schools — Offenses of two kinds; class 
offenses, general offenses — Proper method of adjudicating them. 

Before leaving the subject of discipline entirely, it 
is not improper that some attention slionld be given 
to certain specific schemes, sometimes devised for its 
administration, and to the particular application of 
the foregoing principles to those higher schools whose 
peculiar wants have not thus far in the discussion 
been especially noticed. It is true that the general 
priticij)les abeady laid down might seem a sufficient 
guide to the truth lq those directions. But there are, 
nevertheless, points of particular importance or diffi- 
culty involved, which may escape the notice of the 
practical teacher, or which, if they occur to him, may 
not be so clearly accompanied by their proper solu- 
tion, as to prevent doubt and embarrasment. 

As a further reason for turning the attention in this 
direction, at this stage of the discussion, we urge that 
these schemes of discipline, and the difficulties of the 
schools referred to, are intimately related to the vexed 
question of the "to be or not to be " of corporal 
punishment, — the former, indeed, having their un- 
suspected but real origin in a desire to escape the 
necessity of using it, and the latter, substantially 
arising n-om obstacles, either natural or merely no- 
tional, throTSTi in the way of its employment, and not 
unfrequently amounting to its practical prohibition. 
And these facts wath regard to the origin of the mat- 
■ters in question, and which we believe have seldom 
occurred to our educators, have here a pecuhar signi- 
ficance, and deserve to be kept constantly in mind 



SELF-GOVEKNMENT SCHEME. 255 

during the progress of the discussion, since they are, 
to some extent, the secret key to the real nature of 
the scliemes of discipline now to be examined. 

Of these schemes, that of Self- Government comes 
first in order. So far as its relation to the fundamen- 
tal jDrinciples of school government is concerned, this 
scheme has already been briefly noticed, and its radical 
en'ors suggested. That it disregards the law of its 
derivation as originating in parental government; 
that it practically assumes the pupil to be capacitated 
for the exercise of such functions, and sufficiently 
disposed to render obedience, to be entrusted with 
the sovereign power ; and that it recognizes in the 
teacher the right to transfer the ^performance of his 
OT^TL chief duty or any important part of it, to others ; 
— that it does anjiihing of this, is enough of itself to 
settle the character of its claims. 

There are, however, other considerations that pro- 
nounce against it. SeK-government in the school 
must be of one of two kinds ; it must be either in- 
formal and partial or somewhat systematic and com- 
plete ; that is, it must be summed up in incidental 
and apparent references of questions and measures 
to the voice of the school for their decision and execu- 
tion ; or it must attempt something of a formal or- 
ganization of the school as a body politic, with power 
to detect, decide and perhaps even discipHne offenders. 

Now of these two methods, it has already been seen 
that the first is practically an imposition on the simple 
faith of the pupil ; for he exercises only a seeming, not 
a real power. The teacher either influences and guides 



256 SCHOOL GOTERKMENT. 

the decisions and consequent action, or he stands in 
instant readiness to interfere and to counteract tiie 
measures of the school, whenever they are hkely to 
conflict with liis ovm convictions of justice or necessity. 
Like the priest behind the miraculous image, he 
stands concealed behind the whole democratic ma- 
chine, and practically determines its movements. 
Whether such a scheme is really worthy of the 
teacher's own sound judgment or just integrity ; 
whether it is really a peculiar benevolence to the 
pupils themselves; or whether it can be expected 
long to work well or to accompHsh any very impor- 
tant ends ; or whether it will not speedily be dis- 
covered to be precisely the mere sham it is, let the 
sober-thinking teacher judge for himseK. 

But suppose that the second form is the one chosen ; 
how will the case stand? To begin with, no such 
formal democracy can be consistently practicable ex- 
cept in those schools in which the pupils are some- 
what advanced in maturity and knowledge. "With- 
out the presence among the puj^ils, of a certain sound 
judgment and manly self-control, the real power and 
the actual labor must remain, as in the former case, 
with the teacher alone ; ostensibly a mere " primus 
inter pares," he is, after all, absolutely imperator. 
The whole scheme is thus eviscerated of any true 
reality or popular independence. But this necessary 
restriction of this system of school government to the 
maturer class of pupils, at once, decides the question 
as to its general adaptability or usefulness. 

Again, the work of governing, which, as having to 



SELF-GOVERNiMENT SCHEME. 257 

be carried on conjointly with the work of instruction, 
needs to be as simple as possible, is, under this 
scheme, necessarily comphcated with much new and 
really cumbrous machinery, — machinery, too, largely 
subject in its movements, to the notions of the multi- 
tude, and, therefore, additionally perplexing from its 
inherent uncertainty and need of constant watch 
and control. Now he must be a veritable Atlas, who 
can properly sustain himself amidst the multifarious 
duties and burdens of the school, with this new 
world of a scholastic democracy upon his shoulders. 
It is certainly competent for us to urge that he who 
can do this and properly carry out his scheme of self- 
government, is amply able to govern successfully upon 
the truer and simpler basis of pure absolutism, and 
consequently has no need of the scheme at all ; and it 
is positively certain that he who cannot govern wisely 
and well upon this latter basis, is necessarily unequal 
to the use and perfection of any scheme of popular 
self-government in the school, and should, therefore, 
never attempt it. 

Still further, the natural tendency of the scheme 
must be to pervert the pupil's ideas of the nature of 
true government, to lower his conceptions of the just 
majesty of law, and to lay the foundation for restless- 
ness under any other control than that of his own 
will. For, is it not an error to, in any way inculcate 
the idea that government must necessarily originate 
in the will of the governed, hov>^ever inferior in capac- 
ity, condition or virtue they may be ? Can it other 
than eventually belittle government and abase law, 



258 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

to transfer the lawgiyership from the higher respon- 
sibility and capacity of the teacher, and bring it down 
to the level of an investment in the child's sovereignty? 
Should not he who is to be governed, be able to 
look up with reverence to, and with faith in, authority 
as enthroned in ftuperior power, wisdom and good- 
ness ? But can the child thus look up to, and beheve 
in liimself or in a government thus begotten of, and 
bounded by, himself? Now as to the other question, 
— that of the influence of such schemes in the school 
to engender future restlessness under authoritative 
restraint, and general insubordination, — wo are in- 
clined to the opinion that a salutary lesson may be 
learned from the necessity of our late tremendous 
struggle, to the preservation of the national unity and 
the integi-ity of its government, and to the awakening 
of the people to a just sense of the vital importance 
of undivided loyalty, reverence for constituted author- 
ity, and self-sacrificing obedience to law. 

But once more, finally. In whatever shape the 
scheme of 23023ular self-government in the school may 
be put forward, it is subject to these other practical 
evils. Just so far as the details of government are 
imposed upon the jjupil, their influence must be to 
divert his attention from that undivided interest and 
appHcation necessary to his best progress in study. 
Still further, its tendency must be to create in liim 
an over-critical propensity in judging of the proper 
acts of the teacher, and, from the habit of debating, 
matters of general moment in his own mind, and of 
cxpectmg to have a choice as to their decision, to 



SELF-REPOllTING SCHEME. 259 

induce in him a disposition to be dissatisfied with 
even the conchision reached through the general 
sufirages of the body politic. Every one knows how 
easily a question, quietly decided at once for a class 
or a school, by the proper authority, becomes, when 
thrown open for general discussion and popular de- 
cision, an occasion for difference, contention, and ul- 
timate dissatisfaction. Hence, the weakness and folly 
of teachers who are forever ready to resort to a pub- 
lic vote in the school, for the decision of matters of 
any real importance. 

Closely related to this scheme of self-government, is 
the Self-Repoiiiiig Scheme, a partial method, employed 
generally in combination with some other fancied 
system of discipline such as that of popular sover- 
eignty or that of demerit marks. It differs from the 
former scheme chiefly in that it devolves upon the 
pupil, not so much the prerogatives of legislation and 
execution, as that of seK-judgment. Its marked 
feature is, that it allows or requires him to report to 
the teacher the measure of his own merit or demerit, 
according to his own judgment. It sometimes even 
goes to the ridiculous extreme of devolving upon him 
the determination of the reward or the penalty to be 
attached. 

Now, the teacher may, in his private conferences 
with the pupil, endeavor to draw from him his view 
of his own merit or demerit, not at all as a basis of 
judgment, but only that, if his view be correct, the 
pupil may be made to feel that his own reason and 
conscience are to have a voice with regard to his con- 



260 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

duct, either " accusing or excusing ;" or, if he has 
judged improperly, that the teacher may be able to 
show him his error, and thus enHghten and guide him 
in his apprehension of truth and his convictions of 
desert. 

So, too, as merely an incidental act, not at all as a 
matter of regular or frequent occurrence, the teacher 
may, when he knows the precise facts in the case, 
ev.en publicly call for a pupil's opinion as to his own 
effort or behavior ; not that this opinion may serve, 
in any part, as a basis for his own judgment in the 
premises, but that, by correcting its error kindly and 
without personal reference, he may impress upon the 
school their liabihty to misjudge both as to the char- 
acter of their own conduct and the provisions of his 
government, and may thus give them moral instruc- 
tion of a most practical and important nature. 

But, employed in any other way, or pursued to any 
extent as part of a scheme of disciphne, the method 
under consideration is both stupidly ingenious and 
transparently vicious. For, first, if this opinion of 
the pupil as to his own merit or demerit is sought as 
a basis for the teacher's judgment, the thing is false 
in its first principles. As ruler in the school, and 
knowing what to estabhsh as law, what are you next 
to know but when, where and how to apply discipline 
for the support of law ? To read the pupil's char- 
acter, to discover his merits, to detect his misde- 
meanors, and to divine the proper means for stimulus 
or correction, — this is the teacher's art of governing, 
most "express and admirable." As such, we hold 



SELF-EEPOKTING SCHEME. 201 

that lie has no nglit to throw it upon the pupil, either 
in earnest or in mere pretense. If he does the former, 
he impeaches either his own capacity or faithfulness ; 
if he does the latter, he imposes upon the simple 
faith of the pupil. 

In the second place, the direct tendency of this 
species of practice is to blunt the moral sense of the 
pupil, and to induce deception and falsehood. Nor is 
it of any avail to argue the contrary. Let the pupil 
suppose that you do in any part rest upon his decision, 
and how powerful is the stimulus to make out a fair 
case for himself, even though at the ultimate ex- 
pense of the truth ! Even suppose that he may start, 
and for a time continue honest, how long under such 
temptation, wiU he be able to retain a keen sense of 
the difference between the exact truth and a seK-in- 
terested misrepresentation of facts ? Go beyond the 
child in the school, and apply the same practice to 
every John Doe and Eichard Eoe in our courts of 
justice, and how long would it be before every honest 
man would be compelled to exclaim with deeper feel- 
ing and graver cause than did Falstaff; "Lord! how 
this world is given to lying!" But is it to be sup- 
posed that the heedless boy who does not so much 
discriminate between right and wrong, as between 
birch and not birch, — is it to be supposed that he 
will be proof against the temptation thus thrown in 
his way ? We say to the teacher, with the j^rofound- 
est feeling, before you thus call upon the child to 
report for or against himself, see to it that you first 



262 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

soberly repeat to yourself tlie prayer, " Lead lis not 
into temptation." 

In the thii'd place, there is another evil incident to 
the use of this scheme, if not certain io accompany 
it. Sujjpose that the teacher, while making use of 
th:} pupil's seK-reporting statement, does not accept 
it without quahfication, as a basis of judgment, but 
corrects it by his o^ti knowledge. Here, the tri(st of 
the first act is practically supplanted by the distrust 
of the second act, and how long will it be, before the 
pupil will penetrate to this secret of your strategy ? 
But you may depend upon it, that just so soon as he 
becomes satisfied that you go back of his untrustcd 
word, after the tnisted facts, the fair fabric of your 
whole scheme will dissolve hke the frail frost-work 
of the night under the morning sun, and, what is 
Vvorse, with it will vanish the pupil's better estimate 
of your character as worthy of his admiration and 
confidence. The fact is, in dealing mth the young, 
no truth is more distinct and vital than that there is 
no safe half-way between distmst and faith. 

We pass now to the consideration of the last of 
these specific schemes which involve a practical at- 
tempt to escape the use of penal infliction in the cor- 
rection of ofi'enses. This scheme, which is a sort of 
double-entry affair, and, in its way, collects and pres- 
ents the debits and credits of the pupil's dealing in 
the school, will perhaps be most readily recognized 
as " The Demerit 3Ictrk System:' This title, however, 
belongs properly to one of its extreme phases ; for a 
system of disciphne through a record of standing, 



DEMERIT MARK SCnE:\rE. 2(j3 

raay inYolye three species; namely, that of Pure 
Merit; the Mixed Form; and the Fare Demerit 
System. 

The merit scheme should be marked by the follow- 
ing characteristics. It should start with a certain 
average standard of character, or sum of merit, as- 
sumed as common to all the members of the school. 
This starting point, hoY>'eYer, should never be zero. 
That would be Hke compelling an inexperienced man 
to commence a difficult business -without capital ; to 
begin the building of a house without even foundation 
or site. On the contrary, every pupil should be made 
to feel that he possesses some actual merit that is 
appreciated, and that appears on the roll of standing, 
fairly credited to him. This gives him a hopeful 
foundation upon which to build; an encouraging ac- 
cumulation to which he may add, the natural stim- 
ulus nowhere so necessary as in the creation of char- 
acter, and above all, in its formation and imjDrove- 
ment among the young. 

Proceeding upon this assumed basis of merit, the 
teacher should carefully add to the credit of the 
pupil, upon his roll, the sum of everything v orthily 
done beyond the regular order, or done ahove a mere 
average withhi it. That it should rise above a mere 
average in performance, is clear, siuce that alone iu- 
clicates no real advance from the starting point ; and 
that whatever is done beyond the regular order 
should be credited entire, rests upon the fact that it 
is just so far an advance beyond mere ordinaiy merit. 

But no notice whatever is to be taken of acts of 



2G4 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

demerit : it is foreign to the entire principle and spirit 
of the scheme. Your object is to cleYelop merit by 
encouragement. So far as you do that, you are, not 
only discountenancing, but really supplanting demerit, 
and in a really more effective manner, because it is 
indirect and unobserved. Hence, it is of vital im- 
portance that the pupil's attention should be studi- 
ously kept fastened solely upon the more hopeful 
prospect, — that of increasing merit, or growing ex- 
cellence. The same law holds good here, that obtains 
in the case of generous approval and encouragement 
as opposed to depressing criticism and habitual 
censure, of which notice has elsewhere been taken. 

Of the general correctness of this scheme, there 
can be no doubt. We suspect, however, that it is 
rarely, if ever, practically adopted. And, probably, 
for the reason that it is attended with the following 
difficulties : it is more congenial to human nature to 
interest itself in the faults of others than in their ex- 
cellences ; it is really easier to detect and to measure 
the former satisfactorily to one's self than it is to 
properly discern and estimate the latter ; and, lastly, 
in the work of deciding upon the character and 
measure of a wrong, passion affords a powerful aid 
(v/e say nothing of its worthiness) which is not present 
or available when one has to sit in judgment upon a 
just or virtuous action. How far these difficulties 
should be suffered to have weight with the intelligent 
and earnest teacher, we leave for him to decide. 

Of the mixed form of the marking system, it is 
difficult to speak satisfactorily. In its general method, 



DEMEEIT MARK SCHEME. 2G5 

it of course includes a recognition in the roll of stand- 
ing, of both merit and demerit. But this very fact 
subjects it to grave exception. Erom what has just 
been urged, it will be seen that so far as it is a demerit 
scheme, it is necessarily false in principle, and un- 
happy in its tendencies. Besides this, it will bo 
equally apparent that the combination of the two 
methods involves a practical incongruity in the whole, 
which is objectionable ; and further, if both the meiit 
and demerit elements are equally developed, the 
scheme is rendered altogether too comphcated to 
secure a just attention and apphcation. A perhaps 
worse evil than even these is the fact that, for reasons 
already suggested, the demerit element will like Pha- 
raoh's kine, lean and ill-favored, practically devour the 
rest, and without becoming itseK the fairer or the 
better for the oj^eration ; that is to say, in the minds 
of both teacher and pupils, the demerit marking will 
come eventually to assume the chief, if not the sole 
importance and interest. 

The facts, just noticed, show this mixed form of the 
marking scheme to be so nearly related to that of 
'pure demerit, that we shall, proceed to the considera- 
tion of that, at once. The attention will first be 
directed to its characteristics as apphed to schools 
for the younger class of pupils, in which the use of 
punishment is not wholly discarded. The method 
here pursued is substantially the following. The 
slips and misdemeanors of the pupil, sometimes even 
those of a minute and trivial character, are carefully 
noted, and, by means of a set of symbols, charged to 



26G SCHOOL goveenjuekt. 

his account upon a class roll. Sometimes, as a sort 
of refinement upon its already complicated provisions, 
a weekly bill of tlie accumulating mckedness is made 
out upon a card, and transmitted to the parent for 
his examination and endorsement, generally with no 
accompanying explanation of its mysterious symbols 
or proYisions. "When the pupil has, in due process 
of time, either exhausted the patience of the teacher, 
or run up an amount regarded as sufficiently fla- 
grant, the account is balanced by inflicting the actual 
punishment, ostensibly for the last transgression, 
though perhaps really for the sum total. 

Now, to aU this, there are certainly grave objec- 
tions. First. The whole scheme is based on the 
false principle abeady suggested, — that of censure 
rather than approval ; of depression rather than 
stimulus and encouragement. 

Secondly. It is quite possible for the child to fail 
altogether of obtaining a clear idea of the real pro- 
^dsions of the scheme and of the symbols emj^loyed 
in marking the charges against him. Indeed, we 
have known the scheme to be employed with no de- 
cent, not to say adequate, pains on the part of the 
teacher, to explain it to him, so that he might under- 
stand his true position under discipline, and the real 
purport of the entries made against him. We have 
known a little fellow to be left so lost in its luminous 
provisions, that he represented himself as having 
''got a deportment," the precise nature of which 
disaster he was unable to state. We have seen an- 
other sorely puzzled about what he called " a minus 



DEMERIT ilALK SCHEME. '2G7 

extra," when he knew no more of the meaning of 
minus and extra, than he did of Minos and Ilhada- 
manthus. We have overheard still another, who was 
dubiously balancing himself upon the curb-stone after 
school, complaining to his companion that he had 
been marked by hia teacher, and without his knowing 
for what. 

Now, it is an imperative rule in all disciphne of 
children, that they should be made to know unmistak- 
ably both the nature of their fault and the significance 
and justice of the penalty. But in the scheme under 
consideration, it is easy to see how painfully this very 
knowledge may be wanting. Nor is it any excuse to 
urge that, in such cases as the above, its absence is 
chargeable to the neglect of the teacher rather than 
to the viciousness of the scheme itself. 

For thirdly. We charge that it is in the very nature 
of the scheme to induce this gross neglect. Kemoved 
from the necessity of immediately inflicting punish- 
ment, the registry of the charge which might justify 
it comes to be unconsciously regarded as a mere 
matter of marking down a certain symbol, and, hence, 
the inevitable tendency is to do the whole informally, 
and with no feeling sense of its real bearing upon the 
pupil, and, consequently, with no effort to impress 
upon him, its disciplinary nature and importance. 
It is not strange, then, that teachers who employ this 
method, rarely follow up the use of demerit marks 
with those subsequent moral applications which are 
so essential to all just and wholesome discipline. 

Fourthly. In the same direction Hes another evil. 



268 SCHOOL GOVEENMENT. 

For the same reasons as in the preceding case, the 
teacher is subjected to the constant temptation to 
mark for tri\dal offenses, and will consequently mul- 
tiply minute rules to meet such offenses, and to justify 
the recorded censure. Yet, as has already been seen, 
all such minute requisitions and inflictions are a con- 
tradiction of the fundamental j)i^iiiciples of all good 
government, and a trespass upon the first elements 
of the child's nature. Their direct tendency is either 
to kee23 the pupil under a petty and perpetual ha- 
rassment, or to blunt the fineness of his moral sensi- 
bihty. 

Still further, fi'om this minuteness in requisition, 
and informahty in attaching penalties, the pupil is 
trained to a feeling of contempt, not only for the 
punishment, but for the actual transgression, and so 
comes to entertain a low idea of the importance of 
law, and of the force of moral responsibility. Yet 
notliing can be clearer than, that disciphne which 
does not, in the apprehension of the subject, magnify 
the law and make it honorable ; which does not set 
in clearer Hght the e^dl of transgression ; and which 
does not sharpen the sense of responsibihty, is just 
so far demoralizing and vicious. And that all this is 
reaUy the practical result of the use of this marking 
scheme in juvenile schools, we beheve the experience 
of every observing teacher will attest. 

Fifthly. In case the pupil is finally punished, there 
arise these other evils. If he is punished simply for 
the last offense for w^hich he is marked, inasmuch as 
no reason may appear for his not beuig punished for 



DEMEKIT MAEK SCHEME. 2G9 

the others which preceded, either the teacher will seem 
unjust for not having inflicted punishment for the 
others ; or if they did not deserve it, then he will seem 
unjust in inflicting it for the last. If, however, he is 
punished for the sum total which, since the teacher 
cannot well keep out of mind the entire result of his 
marking, is likely to be practically the fact, the pupil 
will fail to get any just idea of the relation existing 
between transgression and penalty. What he was 
marked for, — the actual fault, — he has forgotten. 
"What he has in mind is simply the marks either 
separately or in their sum. Hence, associating the 
penalty only with what he immediately knows, he 
apprehends liimseK as punished for the so many 
marks. Yet, he is neither likely to discover any real 
criminality in the existence of so many marks against 
him, nor is he capable of perpetrating such an ab- 
straction as to apprehend the sum total of the marks 
as a fixed symbol of the accumulated wickedness for 
which he is punished. 

Finally. Nothing can be clearer than that there can 
be no certainty of the exercise of cool and evenhanded 
justice in affixing the marks of demerit to the pupil's 
standing. Wliere there are several teachers, as in a 
departmental school, no two teachers can be expected 
to form the same precise judgment as to the character 
of the same act, or as to its proper measure of de- 
merit. In one room or class, the pupil will be marked 
severely, and in another, lightly for the same offense. 
Besides this, even in the case of the single teacher, 
there is every probability that he wiU mark differ- 



270 SCHOOL go^t]:rnment. 

entlj, at cliiTerent times, for the same act. At one 
time, it v/ill appear to liim, and from tlie better con- 
dition of his judgment and feelings, quite justly, as 
comparatively trivial and unworthy of notice. At 
another, when he is harassed vdth the pressure of 
his other duties, or vexed with some unexpected com- 
phcation of affairs, or, perhaps, simply ill or out of 
temper, down will go upon his roll a singeing token 
of his displeasure in the shape of a ten or a twenty, 
— we have even known a teacher call out to an 
offender in the class, " I give you eighty demerits for 
conversation," — the only effect of which wt.s to set 
him at a ludicrous calculation of the particular per 
cent, effect of the operation upon his standing. A 
system open to such flagrant abuses, is certainly 
" more honored in the breach than the observance." 

There is a.nother difficulty sometimes experienced 
in connection with this marking method which is al- 
together pecuhar. By a refinement in details, the 
scheme is made to embrace tv/o distinct rolls of 
standing, one for scholarship and the other for good 
behavior. Now in theory, it is not only right that 
conduct should be recognized in the marking, but 
it should stand foremost as the basis of merit or 
demerit. This piinciple has been fully presented 
in connection with the subject of rewards. And yet, 
here arises the difficulty. It is found that w^hen two 
rolls are thus employed, not only does not the mark- 
ing for conduct enlist the first interest ; but, if the 
standing on the scholarship roll is lovv^, a high stand- 
ing on the conduct roll is a cause of uneasiness. 



DEJtfEKIT MAIIK SCHEME. 271 

Botli the nature and the philosophy of the fact 
may be seen from an ilhistration. Let A stand on 
the scholarship roll at 2, on a scale whose maximum 
is 10, and at the same time stand at 8, on the con- 
duct roll. A is then one of the best boys in the 
school, but one of the poorest scholars. Now what 
is the inference on the part of pupil and parents? 
Simply tliis, A h one of the poorest scholars, not 
because he is a bad boy, but because he is didl and 
stupid, his very goodness serving as a proof that he 
has done the best he can. Now the conduct roll, by 
evincing his goodness, comes to stand as proof of his 
dullness ; for, v>'ithout it, it might have been inferred 
that A was smart enough, but had been neghgcnt. 
The evident tendency of all this must be not only to 
destroy the discipHnary utility of the conduct roll, 
but really to induce bad behavior in poor students. 

Now, unreasonable as this view of thhigs may be, 
it is unavoidable. It grows out of the fact that men 
respect ability more than goodness. Hence, in their 
apprehension, ability, hke charity, covers a multitude 
of sins. It is out of tliis, that there arises the ten- 
dency of teachers to mark lightly and with reluct- 
ance, the offense of a good scholar ; while, for the 
same offense committed by the ' luckless scape-goat 
of the class, they v\dll slap do^Ti on the roll promptly 
and with a grim sort of satisfaction, the full charge 
of demerit. For the same reason, the parent will 
evince far greater complacency under the charge 
that his boy is a rogue, than is possible under the 
implication that he is a lackbrain. "Wliatevcr com- 



272 SCHOOL GOVEENMENT. 

plaint jOTi may make of liis beliavior, give Mm the 
credit of being the best scholar in the class, and you 
salve the wound effectually. The scholarship gratifies 
the parent's pride ; the roguery he complacently dis- 
poses of as " wild oats," — a grain which w^e fear is 
getting to be the rule rather than the exception, 
among our youth. But assure the parent as warmly 
as you will, that, while the boy is one of the dullest 
of scholars, he is a very model of good conduct, and 
in nine cases out of ten you will inflict a, perhaps 
concealed, but yet mortal wound. 

The influence of all this to complicate the marking 
system, and destroy its effectiveness, needs no further 
illustration. 

With regard, now, to the use of the demerit mark 
scheme in schools for pupils of a maturer class, the 
reflecting teacher will at once see that many of the 
objections, just urged against it, hold equally good 
in this higher field. It is here, just as truly as before, 
opposed to the true theory of disciphne, — that of ele- 
vation or encouragement ; and it is quite as certain 
to be irregular, capricious, and even unrighteous in 
its application. There Tvill, of course, from the gi"eater 
maturity of the pupils, be less room for ignorance or 
misapprehension as to its provisions and their imme- 
diate bearing on the offenses in question. But that 
very maturity, and the capacity it gives to compre- 
hend thus much, will also enable them to detect more 
easily its errors. It thus ensures the certainty that, 
unless the scheme be employed with a masterly skill, 
it wiU come to be held in still deeper contempt than 



DEMERIT MARK SCHEME. 273 

Tvas possible in the case of younger pupils. And it 
cannot but be seen that this contempt must be the 
more certain and aggravated fi-om the simple fact 
that the teacher is pov\'erless to supplement its weak- 
ness, by the sterner sanctions of penal infliction. 

Here, then, arises the all-important question, 
" Yf hat is the teacher in these higher schools to do ? 
He may not make use of penal mflictions ; if he is 
not to employ this marking scheme of discipline, 
what resource has he?" To this we ansvrer, first, 
"Necessity knows no law." Bad as the demerit mark 
scheme is, he may have to employ it. But if he does 
resort to it, let him, in the hght of the foregoing 
considerations, correct its common defects as far as 
he can. Let him employ its symbols solely as 'private 
memoranda which may serve as a basis for a just 
knowledge in laboring ^\ith the pupil in private, and 
for a righteous judgment in determining the projiriety 
of final exclusion. Let thorough dispassionateness 
characterize all his marking, and, if he can not other- 
wise secure this, let him never mark at the instant 
nor upon the immediate impulse. If he be indisposed 
or irritated, he had better not mark at all ; let not 
both teacher and pupil suffer at once for the infirm- 
ities of human nature. 

And, lastly, let him never announce the marking to 
the pupil in public : ifc is an error in principle, and an 
abomination in practice, which is only calculated to 
react in either exasperation or contempt, upon tlio 
disciphne itseK. Let not the teacher, even in his 
private conferences with the pupil, mention it in 



274 SCHOOL GOYEKN^iENT. 

form ; this is hardly less mischieyoiis than the other. 
The roll is the teacher's private guide ; the pupil 
has no more right of access to it than he has to 
his "Daily Memorandum." The teacher's final de- 
cision as to the pupil's standing embraces general 
facts beyond the reach of the roll. If, now, he pre- 
viously announces the pupil's standing according to 
the mere roll marks, his subsequent judgment is cut 
off from modification ; or, if modified, is likely to be 
disputed by the pupil. Once more, announce the 
standing according to the roll marks with any degree 
of frequency, and the pupil will soon be taught to 
study merely for the mark standing, and not at all 
for the higher ends of duty and self-conscious 
wortliiness. He becomes a mere mercenary laborer, 
as in the case of prizes. 

The tmth is, all that should come to the Ivnowledge 
of the pupil is the substantial character of his con- 
duct, as it lies in the teacher's mind, and as positively 
defined by his record. This may, and should, be as 
distinctly set before the pupil, as is needful to secure 
in him a just knowledge of his dehnquency and duty, 
and to aiford a sufficient ground for the presentation 
of those moral considerations which are, in his case, 
the only real means of con-ection. 

This last thought naturally suggests the second 
ansv/er to the main question. And that is, that just 
in proportion as the pupil advances toward maturity 
of age and capacity, the government of the school 
must pass from the lower to the higher sj)ecies. The 
government of mere force must necessaiily expii'e at 



DEPAliTMENT/^ SCHOOLS. 275 

an early period. The government of authority en- 
dui-es longer. It may indeed be regarded as holding 
some important place throngliont the ^vhole of the 
pupil's career in the school ; latterly, not as the chief 
means or rehance, but rather as a sustaining element 
in the use of the higher species. In the last stage, 
the government of iniluence enters the field as the 
chief, and often sole means of hopeful and effective 
control in the school He, therefore, who, in the 
government of adult j)upils, cannot skilfully and suc- 
cesfully apj)ly its provisions, Tvill sooner or later be 
ch'iven to an unconditional surrender of his preroga- 
tives as ruler. To this, there is but one alternative, 
and that too seldom practicable among us ; namely, 
the establishment of a pui-ely military rule. 

The resort to the government of influence in our 
higher schools, unsupported, as to a gTeat extent it 
must be, by the direct sanctions of positive authority, 
v.ill undoubtedly be attended with some difficulties. 
But, inasmuch as those difficulties are only such as 
always attend the proper management and control of 
men, they are no just cause for discoui'agement. 
Nay, rather, the field thus opened to the true teacher 
should be one of especial ambition, since here only 
is it that his highest executive skill, his truest jDracti- 
cal greatness as a man, is to be developed or e^dnced. 

And, further, in this transition from the lower to 
this higher species of government in the school, there 
are, with the increased difficulties, some peculiar 
attending advantages. That ^ery maturity v/hicli 
compels a resort to influence, renders the pupil more 



276 SCHOOL GOYEENMENT. 

accessible to its effective use. He can now better 
understand and appreciate the genial good vnR wbich 
brings the teacher into closer association with him as 
a companion and friend. He can more clearly com- 
prehend the nature and force of the reasonings by 
which his true interest and obHgation are enforced 
upon his conscience. And his moral susceptibilities, 
though often sadly blunted, are yet, if properly 
approached and 'v\TOught upon, better adapted to 
substantial and permanent effects, than is to be ex- 
pected in the case of younger pupils. If, with these 
facts before him, the teacher is still incapable of 
applying himself patiently and resolutelj^ to the use 
of this higher species of control, he is fitter to be 
governed than to govern. 

There are certain points connected with the govern- 
ment of departmental sehools, which, while not ne- 
cessarily involved in this connection, may be more 
conveniently noticed here than elsewhere. "We shall 
therefore give them such attention as their general 
importance demands, though necessarily in brief. 

By departmental schools we mean such as are 
under the conduct of a number of teachers, principal 
and subordinate, and as consequently appear in 
several divisions, either more or less distinctly organ- 
ized. They are of two lands ; those of a lower order, in 
which the several teachers are not held as constituting 
a faculty proper, in which the division of the school 
is not one of specific departments, and in v/hich the 
pux3ils, during the school hours, are held to a fixed 
and common place of study ; and those of the higher 



DEPARTMENTAL SCHOOLS. 277 

order, in wliicli the departments are organized on tlio 
basis of specialties in instruction or tlistinct courses 
of study, in wliicli the teachers or professors form a 
proper faculty, and in which the pupils are congregated 
only in class rooms and for the purpose of recitation. 
These last are departmental schools proper. 

With regard to the first or lower order of divdded 
schools, there are some practical difficulties hearing 
upon their government, which it is not easy to reach. 
For example, the attainment of the most thorough 
superyision of the several pupils, the greater simph- 
fication of the disciphne, and the more direct and 
effective individuahzing of cases under treatment, 
would suggest the somewhat equal distribution of the 
pupils in different study-rooms under the different 
teachers, and the consequent equalization of the re- 
spective shares of the latter in the instmction and 
government. On the other hand, convenience in the 
movements of the pupils and the change of classes, 
economy in the provision of school rooms, and the 
difficulty of securing the proper governmental capacity 
m all the teachers, to which may be added the public 
hostility to the infliction of the severer punishments 
except by the highest authority, — all these demand 
the general congregation of the pupils in one study- 
room, and the devolving of their general government 
chiefly upon one teacher, the others being restricted to 
the simple charge and control of classes in recitation. 

"We shall enter into no discussion of the relative 
merits of these two forms, since it is a question of 
organization rather than government, and since its 



278 SCHOOL GOM^FtNJMENT. 

decision must rest, not upon theories, but upon the 
practical facts inyolved. But, inasmuch as the latter 
species of organization is the one more commonly 
adopted, and so far appears to be practically accepted 
as the best possible under the circumstances, v/e shall 
confine ourselves to its exclusive consideration. 

So far now, as, under this organization, the general 
government of the school as devolving upon the 
teacher permanently in charge of the study-room, is 
concerned, the principles of the art as herein set forth 
are of direct apphcation, and constitute of themselves a 
sufficient guide. But there are specific questions that 
may arise with regard to the duties and j)rerogatives 
of subordinates, merely in charge of classes in recita- 
tion, that require a more definite solution. The fol- 
lowing considerations are, therefore, urged as chiefly 
important in the premises. 

First. So far as the teacher has the privilege of 
governing his class, he should be guided by the prin- 
ciples of school government in general as herein set 
forth ; and, so far as he can, within his limited field 
and with his restricted powers, he should faithfully 
endeavor to carry them out. Tliis is essential to the 
welfare of his class as, for the time being, the body 
politic, and to the maintenance of his authority as 
ruler for the time being. 

Secondly. He should, nevertheless, endeavor, even 
though at the sacrifice of some personal convictions, 
to govern in substantial accordance with the general 
method established for the whole school. This is 
necessary that there may be no clash between de- 



DEPARTMENTAL SCHOOLS. '2 71) 

partinents, no failui-e on the part of each department 
to supplement and sustain the rest, and no occasion 
for invidious comparisons of individual departments 
or teachers. The work of providing such a general 
method and of harmonizing its specific apphcation 
by the several teachers, should be one of the first 
and chief objects of concern on the part of the proper 
principal. 

Thirdly. Great pains should be taken by the prin- 
cipal not to denude the individual teacher of disci- 
plinary power so completely that he becomes, as is 
too commonly the case, a mere puppet before his 
class. A super^sdsion which destroys the independ- 
ence of a subordinate, or an absorption of power 
which reduces him to a mere cipher, is narrow in 
policy and eventually destructive in practice. Eeduce 
the class-teacher to the mere privilege or duty of re- 
porting offenses, — a practice peculiarly incident to 
the extended use of the marking system, — and you 
impair the teacher's sense of personal responsibihty ; 
you encourage him to neglect the duty of laboriag 
individually with offenders, and you offer a premium 
upon the exercise among his pupils, of a thorough 
and contemptuous disregard for his position and 
authority. 

Hence, so far as may be practicable, he shoidd be 
empowered to investigate, decide, and discipline 
within his own sphere, subject only to the general 
restriction suggested under the second head. If, 
further, it may be, for any cause, necessary to with- 
hold from him the right to inflict punishment, let it 



280 SCHOOL GOVEENMENT. 

be done only with reference to the severer penalties 
wliich, as bearing more directly upon tlie delicate 
sensibilities of the public, may endanger the peace or 
safety of the school authorities. And, in inflicting 
those punishments at the instance of the subordinate, 
let the principal, by all means, do it in the proper 
field and. immediate presence of the subordinate, and 
substaniiaUy under Ms direction, so that, to the eye 
of the class, the latter shall practically stand forth as 
the authoritative ruler in his own department. In no 
other way is it possible for the principal to preserve 
the seK-respect of the subordinate or hold him stead- 
ily to his proper responsibihty ; in no other way can 
he hold the class firmly to the exercise of a respectful 
regard for the position and authority of the subordi- 
nate, or a uniform obedience to the general order of 
the school. 

Of those higher departmental schools, in which 
there is a properly organized faculty and no fixed 
congregation of the pupils, during the school session, 
in a common study-room, Httle need be said. The 
offenses here are of course restricted to those com- 
mitted against the proper order of the recitation 
room, and those committed outside against the gen- 
eral order of the school. 

Of these, the former fall exclusively under the juris- 
diction of the teacher or professor proper, and should, 
in accordance with the foregoing rules for the lower 
schools, be adjudged and disciphned by him alone, 
except in case of reference or appeal to the faculty 
entire. For obvious reasons elsewhere suggested, 



DEPAKTMENTAL SCHOOLS. 281 

sucli discipKne sliould be ahvays in substantial con- 
formity wdtli tlie general order agreed upon for the 
whole scliool. 

Those general offenses which bear upon the gov- 
ernment of the school at large, should, as a matter 
of course, be properly considered and adjudged by 
the faculty as such. Only in this way can organic 
unity in oversight, responsibility, effort, and influence 
be secured throughout the whole corps. This, how- 
ever, is by no means to reheve the individual teacher 
from his obhgation to make direct personal effort for 
the correction of offenses of which he is cognizant ; 
nor is it to detract from the sovereign prerogative of 
the principal to have a voice and power over and 
above the T^ill of the faculty, when in the exercise of 
a superior sagacity, it may seem necessary to trans- 
cend that will. Generally, however, when there is in 
the superior officer, the proper executive capacity, 
such a necessity will seldom occur. The exercise of 
what should be, in a principal, a characteristic good 
sense and tact, will TisuaUy succeed in commanding 
the reasonable acquiescence and support of all, with- 
out the need of overruling any. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

SCHOOL G0\:EENMENT — GEKEEAL RESUME OF ITS SPE- 
CIES ; THEIR CHARACTERISTICS, AND THE QUALIFICA- 
TIONS REQUISITE TO THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 

Species classified, as those of Force, Authority, and Influence — General 
elements, means, ideas, and ends, severally stated — Relative order and 
iiitportance of the species considered — Government of force, inferior, 
restricted, and insufficient alone — That of authority higher — Needs to 
be supplemented by the others — That of influence, superior — Insuffi- 
cient alone, in a depraved moral system — Government must combine 
all three species — Qualifications, why reconsidered, or stated anew — 
Qualifications for the vse of force — Strength, pron}ptitude, and resolu- 

• tion — These severally considered — Qualifications for the exercise of con- 
trol — Good bodily presence — Includes i:)hysical exterior and mien or 
carriage — ^Power of these — Gross defects to which they are opposed — 
Illusti-ation of the power of these qualifications — Intellectual qualifi- 
cations — Sound judgment — Its importance — Its elements, accurate jier- 
ception of facts, ready apprehension of just method of treatment — 
Method of culture — Imperturbable temper — Evils of a lacli of this — 
Faults sure to be aggravated unless thoroughly corrected — False apol- 
ogies for indulgence in hasty temper — Intelligent persistency — Not mere 
blind stubbornness — Importance of rational persistencj' — Qualifica- 
tions for the use of the government of infiuence — Genial nature — Neces- 
sity to the existence of sympathy and love between teacher and pupil 
— Logical skill — Restriction in the use of reasoning with the pupil- 
Proper UL^e — Personal (yooiZwess— Not a "weak easiness or indulgence — 
But positive worthiness, the result of self-conquest — Base character 
sure of ultimate detection and defeat — Tact — Its nature — Relation to 
good sense— Its utility— Means of development— J'er.si.s<e?^ce— As dis- 
tinguished from authoritative persistence — Poioer of retraction — Diffi- 
culty of retracting successfully— ^wfes for retraction— l^oi every error 
needs correction — Even important errors, Mhen observed, not always 
to be corrected — Folly of petty apologies and constant retraction — 
Govcrunieut niu:^t simply evince power and willingness to corr-jct 



RESUME OF SPECIES OF GOVERNMENT. 283 

when best — R^jstractiou to be made frankly, but unostentatiously— ,S'«^- 
gcsted facts — Liffercnve of Jhiutle qiudificationa — Woman's lack of the 
stronger physical and intellectual qualities— Iler superiority in the 
more delicate moral qualifications — Error of those who demand mere 
masculine vigor in the woman as teacher — Differences in power and qual- 
ification among men— AW have not, and cannot acquire, the same— ^a;. 
climive forms of government objectionable — The best form that the man 
can best apply — Government summed up, not in the measures, but 
the spirit of the man. 

We are noYv^ prepared for our closing work, a com- 
prehensive resume of school government considered 
vi-ith reference to its general species, tlieir character- 
istics, and the qualifications requisite to their suc- 
cessful administration. 

From the preceding discussion, it has been seen 
that the govemment of the school is practically of 
three general species : 1st, that of Force ; 2d, that of 
Authority; and 3d, that of Love. 

The general elements of effect in these species re- 
spectively are, in the first, mere physical capacity, or 
Strength; in the second, Foicer, either bodily or 
mental ; and in the third, Influence^ both intellectual 
and moral. 

The general means employed in each respectively 
are, in the first, Compulsion ; in the second. Requisi- 
tions or Mandates, either with or without reasonings 
or penal inflictions ; and in the third. Persuasion, 
either argumentative or pathetic. 

The general idea entertained of the subject, under 
each reapectiveiy, is as follows : under the govern- 
ment of force, he is regarded as a mere unreasoning 
creature , under that of authority, he is held as an 
intelligent subject; and under that of love, he is 



284 SCHOOL GOVEENMENT. 

looked upon as not only an intelligent subject, but 
as capacitated for the exercise of a true and loving 
loyalty. 

The ultimate supremacy attained in the successful 
administration of the three general species respect- 
ively, is of different kinds corresponding. In the 
first, the supremacy is that of mere Mastery ; in the 
second, it is that of Sovereign Control, or Lordship ; 
and in the third, it is that of Moral Supremamj, 

This analysis at once reveals the relative import- 
ance of these species of government in the school, to 
be pi:ecisely that of the order in which they have just 
been presented, beginning with the lowest and ending 
with the highest. 

The government of mere force, resulting only in 
physical mastery, however just in its place, or com- 
plete in its success, stands necessarily lowest in the 
scale. It is inferior in its governing idea, in the 
means it employs, and in the ends attained. Fur- 
thermore, although necessary and useful within its 
prescribed limits, it is insufficient of itself; it is 
unable and unfit to stand alone ; and if made the 
sole or chief reUance, must even be pronounced to 
be the necessary resource of mere incompetence to 
govern, and to be, in its essential character, base and 
despotic. 

Far higher in the scale stands the government of 
authoritative power, or true control. It is nobler in 
the idea cherished both of itself and of its subjects, 
more comprehensive in its capabilities and means, 
and more efi^ective and salutary in its results. Yet 



RESUME OP SrECIES OF GOVERNMENT. 285 

even this species can liardly be considered as, in 
itself, sufficient or complete. Without the co-opera- 
tion of the first, it may sometimes fail for lack of 
material power to command universal obedience. 
Without the full alliance of the last species, the gov- 
ernment of love, it must often stop short of evincing 
the highest elements of excellence, and must fail to 
attain the truest and noblest results. It is, of itself, 
adequate to the preservation of substantial order and 
organic harmony and prosperity. But it cannot reach 
that perfect crown of all governmental success in the 
school, the thorough and benign transformation of 
character, and the permanent alliance of its subjects 
in the cause of its own perpetuation and perfection. 

The last, the government of influence, or true su- 
premacy, is, in its individual character, whether we 
look at its controlling idea, its specific appliances or 
its ultimate achievements, doubtless the purest and 
best. Still, it must not be forgotten, that, taken as an 
exclusive mode, even this species of government is 
not without its defects. In a perfect moral system, yet 
unvitiated by the introduction of depraved passions 
and a disloyal wiU, it might, perhaps, be able to 
stand and rule alone. But where the opposite char- 
acteristics are prevalent ; where the subjects of moral 
government are, not only imperfect in apprehension, 
but depraved in nature ; where there are endless 
counteracting notions, desires, examples, and influ- 
ences, it stands in reason, that the case is different. 
Here, it lacks the grand element which is alone able 
to secure free scope and fair play for the exercise of 



286 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

its own better appliances, and which only can gnar- 
ant}^ it either safety or success. Able it may be, 
when the way is clear, to secure the desii'ecl trans- 
formation of character, and substantial order as con- 
sequent ; but it is not unfailingly competent to make 
that way clear when once it has been obstructed. It 
may indeed go down upon the realm of a corrupted 
nature, and 

" Tempt witli wand'ring feet 
The dark, unbottomed, infinite abyss ;" 

but it can give no sure pledge that it will not at the 
last be driven, 

" Bootless home, and weather-beaten back," 

Generous then may be the nature which espouses 
its cause, and seeks to rely on it alone ; but it is 
neither well informed nor practically wise. Hence, 
we are forced to accept the general conclusion, that 
in the school, as mdeed elsewhere, the system of 
government chosen and administered must be eclectic 
rather than partial or exclusive : it must range freely 
through all three of the foregoing species, and, em- 
ploying them in their proper order and proportion, 
must perfect itself in a just aUiance and harmonious 
co-operation of the whole. A just apprehension of 
the vaHdity and force of this conclusion would go far 
toward the effective correction of the too current ten- 
dency to assume the sufficiency and exclusive lawful- 
ness of the various schemes, of natural reactions, 
moral suasion, and reformatory discipline, — schemes, 
in themselves considered, not destitute of individual 



species: requisite qualifica'hons. 287 

excellencies, but wliicli, as commonly taught and 
urged, are only deceptive and dangerous. 

"We are now prepared to notice the quali/ications 
requisite to the successful administration of the gov- 
ernment of the school, as set forth in this analysis. 
Li doing this, we shall foUow the order of the fore- 
going analysis as the most convenient, and as 
susceptible of presenting each class in the better 
hght of its relations and comparative importance. 
Some of these will doubtless occur to the reader, as 
having been suggested in the previous discussion. 
These, however, cannot be entirely excluded here, 
without impairing the general classification and losing 
the benefit of such additional light as may be thrown 
upon them. But the notice taken of them wiU, for 
the reason just suggested, be comparatively brief. 

Others will be presented, not because the attain- 
ment of them is possible in the case of every teacher, 
nor because the effort toward such attainment is ob- 
ligatory on those naturally deficient ; but because they 
properly have their place in the complete scheme of 
qualifications ; because they are suggestive of direc- 
tions in which important culture and improvement 
may be sought ; and because the mention of them 
win evince the greater advantage and respoiisibihty 
of those who have been, by a beneficent nature, 
thus nobly endowed. Let the earnest teachc r, then, 
be upon his guard against being discouraged by the 
early discovery of his natural or constitutional lack 
of any of these particular quahfications ; and be 
equally careful not to form a hasty estimate of their 



288 SCHOOL GOVEENJIENT. 

value, upon tlie unfair basis of a partial or ill-digested 
examination of tlie entire scheme. Our object is to 
explore faithfully the whole field before us, that, so 
far as it may be possible, everyone may be able to 
find something clearly adapted to his own individual 
necessities or responsibihties. 

To proceed, then, the qualifications requisite to the 
successful administration of the first species of gov- 
ernment, that of mere force, are few and simple, 
being primarily, mere physical strength ; and, second- 
arily, when the former is inadequate alone, alertness, 
or promptitude in action. Every one knows how 
potent an element this last is in a trial of strength, 
in which the parties are unequally matched, and how 
often it is itself sufficient to seciu'e the victory. In 
cases in which both of these elements of mastery are 
either wanting or are inadequate to the task imposed 
upon them, there is no resource except 

" The mind and spirit remains 
Invincible." 

The higher strength must be found in aroused and 
determined resolution. Every one conversant with 
human conflict knows how possible it is for such res- 
olution to reduphcate, for the time being, even the 
physical powers. Indeed, here, as well as in the 
higher fields of struggle, it is often true that the 
measure of the will is the measure of the abihty. 

The quahfications favoring the happy administra- 
tion of the second and higher s^^ecies of government, 
that of control, or proper sovereignty, are more varied 



SPECIES : REQUISITE QUALIFICATIONS. 289 

and deserying of a fuller consideration. They are, 
first, a good physical exterior or bodily presence. 
Tliis includes several distinct elements, such as size, 
just proportions, proper solidity of frame, an eye 
keen and penetrating or clear and commanding, and 
a voice full, distinct, and naturally authoritative. 
Milton recognizes the general principle when he says 
of Adam : 

" His large, fair front and eye sublime declared 
Absolute rule." 

As has been intimated, however, these quahties are 
not always at command ; nor is he to be judged ne- 
cessarily incompetent, who may be wanting in them. 
Still it must be patent to every observing mind, that, 
other things being equal, he who possessing these, 

looks 

" Every incb a king," 

will, at once, command a respectful attention and a 
prompt obedience, which will be denied to a person 
of feeble or insignificant appearance, and which the 
latter must first conquer by the force of a subsequent 
development of hidden and unsuspected power, before 
lie can confidently and surely claim them. 

Secondly. A becoming or noble mien, or carriage 
of one's self, is important, and, aside from the general 
reason, — ^its bearing upon the government, — because 
it is a direct symbol of the inward spirit which cer- 
tainly has some just claim to a fittiug outward repre- 
sentation ; because it is to a good degi-ee susceptible 
of development in every person of anj force of char- 
acter ; and because, in some of its elements, Ameri- 



290 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

cans are notoriously and culpably deficient. Tliis 
quality erabraces the several elements ; erectness of 
form ; self-possessed steadiness in movement and 
certainty in action ; unembarrassed directness of look 
and address ; and a deliberate and unfaltering utter- 
ance. 

The faults to which these are opposed are an un- 
natural and unhealthy stoop, and careless or lounging 
postures, — both matters of the merest habit, and 
simply inexcusable ; undue haste or fitful irregularity 
in movement, either original or acquii'ed ; clumsy 
and imperfect action in doing things, not uncommonly 
the result of conscious incompetence ; a lowering, 
downcast, or avei'ted look, either the product of con- 
stitutional timidity or mere mauvais horte ; a hesitating 
or bungling style of address, quite generally the just 
retribution of our common disloyalty to the study of 
our noble "mother tongue;" and a thick, feeble, or 
vulgar utterance, sometimes natural, but more often 
the base birth of the abominable neglect in our 
schools, of the noble art of reading. " From such 
withdraw thyself," if thou art either an earnest 
teacher or indeed but half a man. Contentment with 
them is a vice. 

Of the utility of this gi^and quahfication, we ui'ge 
nothing beyond its seK-evident claims, except by way 
of brief practical illustration. Let, for example, a 
command be issued, and with a cool, self-possessed 
mien, and a direct and confident look and tone, and 
who does not know that it carries with it, a clear 
conviction to the mind addressed, not merely of the 



species: requisite qualifications. 291 

necessity of obedience, but also of its o^vn inherent 
rectitude. " Confidence," says Tupper, " was bearer 
of the pahn because it looked hke conviction of 
desert." So too, what skillful teacher has not wit- 
nessed the simple and effective power of a sudden 
pause, profound silence, and a steady and penetratmg 
look fastened upon some thoughtless and disturbing 
member of the httle commonwealth? Looks, Hke 
gestures, are often mightier than words, and their 
right and effective use might well be more fi^equently 
a subject of study among our teachers. In practical 
deahng -v^ath human nature, it is a cardinal maxim ; 
that manner is more vital than even matter. 

But nothing here urged is to be accepted as coun- 
tenancing a mere studied pompousness or preten- 
tiousness of manner. Simple affectation or pretence 
in the teacher is a vice of no insignificant dimensions. 
But a properly cidtivated or a naturally noble man- 
ner is quite another thing, and is both legitimate and 
desirable. 

Passing, thirdly, to the higher and more exclusively 
intellectual quahties, the first to be noticed is sound 
judgment or, in common phraseology, good common 
sense. This is of the utmost importance. It is for 
the teacher, (as indeed for every man who has to deal 
with human affairs,) the touchstone of practical char- 
acter and endowment : it is the master attribute. 
No other good quahties which he may possess, can 
counterbalance any especial deficiency in this direc- 
tion. The best designs and the fahest plans may 
be hopelessly marred or foiled, by the simple lack, 



292 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

on the part of the teacher, of good common sense. 
"With it, those even intrinsically defective may count 
upon a reasonable success. 

Its elements are few and simple, being, first, a 
prompt and accurate perception of the facts in the 
case, and, secondly, a ready intuitive apprehension 
of their just relations to the probable treatment de- 
manded. They may be summed up, in a raj^id and 
transparent survey of the whole field of the specific 
fact or measure concerned, iiTespective of mere per- 
sonal prepossessions or considerations. It involves 
really the power of whoUy discharging the observer 
himself, from the view taken, and of looking at things 
in their otvti nature and relations exclusively. In the 
lack of this power, lies the real secret of the failure 
of many persons to evince sound judgment or com 
mon sense. They cannot, in their judgments, get 
out of, away from, and above themselves. Hence, 
self-conceited and egotistical minds must always be 
wanting in this quahty. 

Good judgment or common sense is usually, to a 
great extent, a native endowment. Its attainment, 
when it is not native, is a matter of some difficulty ; 
in some cases, it is seemingly impossible. Yet 
teachers should guard against too readily accepting 
this last as the fact in their o^ii case. For the 
quality may be, to an imj)ortant degree, either ac- 
quired or cultivated. 

The proper means to be employed in that direction 
are simple and within reach. They are first, a well- 
balanced culture of the intellect generally ; secondly, 



species: requisite qualifications. 293 

the habit of hearty association with others ; thirdly, 
the constant practice of close observation both of 
men and things ; and histly, the thoughtful and (con- 
tinued study of one's own experience. The last is, 
of itself, in many cases sufficient. Indeed the uni- 
versal value attached to experience is really due to 
the fact that it produces, not merely enlarged knowl- 
edge, but enlarged common sense. And these means, 
so simple and accessible, can neither be too higlily 
esteemed, nor too assiduously employed. Teachers 
are, we fear, too prone, either from original indispo- 
sition to self-culture, or from entire preoccupation 
with books, to neglect them. But the error is a fatal 
one. Sooner or later, the price must be paid and to 
the uttermost farthing. Hence, (to vary the maxim) ; 
" caveat doctor ;" let the teacher beware. 

Fourtlily. Let the teacher either possess, or fully 
acquire a cool and imperturbable temper. Of the 
practical and pressing importance of this quahfica- 
tion, little need be said. Easy excitabihty or hasty 
violence are, of necessity, dangerous elements in the 
government of the school. Their tendency to weaken 
the teacher's influence ; to impair the accuracy of his 
judgment ; to comphcate his administration of disci- 
phne ; to occasion positive injustice ; and to stimu- 
late and strengthen both by example and direct colli- 
sion, the fiercer passions of his pupils, is unmistak- 
able. 

Furthermore, these faults cannot remain stationary. 
Unless effectually subdued, they must grow in fre- 
quency of exhibition and in power. The school will 



294 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

afford a thousand petty occasions for the aggi'avation 
of the one, and the stimulation of the other to un- 
seemly and destructive outbreaks. Correction is, 
then, the only safety. It is idle to plead that the 
teacher is naturally hasty, or to rely upon that shal- 
lowest of all subterfuges that it will soon be learned 
that it " is his way/' As to the J&rst, he has no right 
as teacher to leave so public a fault uncorrected; 
and for the second, let him remember that he rules 
among those, who, in their yet unsophisticated yiews 
of consistency, are not likely to feel the force of the 
apology. There is no evading of this gTand principle ; 
he who cannot or will not control himself, is not fit 
to control others. 

Lastly, under this second species of government, 
we notice as a requisite qualification, intelhgent sta- 
biUty of will, or persistency of purpose. We say dis- 
tinctly, intelligent persistency ; for simple blind perti- 
nacity, or mere stubbornness is itself an infirmity, of 
which can come but little good, and if any, that only 
by chance. The famous, and often nauseatingiy re- 
iterated maxim ; " perseverance conquers all things ;" 
is true only with limitations. Perseverance may 
possess this power, but only when it is rational, that 
is, when it is inspired and guided by proper knowl- 
edge and sound judgment. An ass may be conceived 
as kicldng with the characteristic stubbornness of his 
race, agauist, for example, the Hoosic mountain, tiU 
" the crack of doom ;" but it does not therefore follow 
that he will eventually, by the mere ^drtue of his per- 
severance, either buffet back its iron walls, or con- 



species: IlEQUISITE QUALIFICATIONS. 2U5 

quer for liiinself a successful subterranean passage 
to its farther slope. 

But of an intelligent, a rational persistency, all 
may be promised that is possible. Hence, let the 
teacher either have or acquire this important char- 
acteristic. He vnH have large and constant occasion 
for its exercise, as has elsewhere been shown. If he 
is naturally deficient, he may do more to correct the 
evil than many suppose. It is quite possible for him, 
by the simple practice of carefully considering before- 
hand the work he proposes to undertake, by repeat- 
edly and firmly bringing himseK back fi'om any ii-- 
resolute lapsing thei^fix)m, and by renewedly girding 
himself up to the unflinching endeavor, — it is quite 
possible through the use of those means, to almost 
recreate the will. And a firm will is a power in the 
school. 

Of the qualifications calculated to insure success 
in the administration of the third, and last species of 
government in the school, that of influence, or moral 
supremacy, the first in- order is a genial nature. 

Influence can only be secured and exerted where 
there is a certain amount of mutual attraction ; and 
attraction involves mutual modifications, clifi'erent, 
perhaps, in degree, but yet similar in kind. To ob- 
tain this power over the pupil, the teacher must be 
able to arouse and enlist in Lis own behalf the more 
genial side of the pupil's nature. The only direct 
means of effecting this is to disclose and apply the 
genial elements of his own nature. Certainly, if he 
be of a cold or distant temper ; if he stands aloof 



296 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

from the most susceptible and sumiy of all natures, — 
that of the child ; or if he approaches it^ but with no 
near and sympathizing contact, with no warm and 
radiant sunshine from his own heart, he cannot ex- 
pect to bring the child out from his isolation, distance, 
timidity, or antagonism, into the realm and atmos- 
phere of influence and regard. Unrelenting rigidity 
and frost have no business to look for the evoking of 
a bland and blooming spring. 

The importance, then, of the teacher's careful cul- 
tivation of a pleasant and kindly address, if he has 
it not by nature ; of his unbending himself at the 
proper times, from his sterner moods and duties, to 
seek a proper companionship T\ith his pupils, and of 
his careful exhibition of a just but lively sympathy 
with them in their Httle joys and sorrows, becomes 
again not less apparent than it has been already else- 
where seen to be. 

Secondly. Under this general head, logical ability 
or skill must be included as a qualification of no 
slight value. We embrace in this, not only a capacity 
to discover consistent reasons for things required, but 
also proper skill in presenting them to the mind to 
be influenced. In the exercise of authority proper, 
the teacher has need, for his own sake as legislator 
and ruler, to be a clear and self-consistent thinker. 
But, as has elsewhere been hinted, his logical con- 
clusions, are not, under that species of government, 
except to a very Hmited and guarded extent, to be 
appHed directly to the understanding of the subject. 
"Requirements and decisions are, by the very nature 



SPECIES : REQUISITE QUALIFICATIONS. 207 

of authority, to be generally unargued. But, under 
the rule of influence, it is often quite otherwise. 
Y> hen ever the pupil is in a proper frame of mind ; is 
somewhat effectively dra^^Ti to the teacher by an in- 
cipient or substantial regard ; and is alread}^ meas- 
urably prepared to yield obedience for its own sake, 
the way is open for the generous unfolding to him of 
the reasons which reveal the justice or benevolence 
of the claims laid upon him, and the dignity and 
beauty, not merely of obedience, but of hearty co- 
operation. And when this can be done, it is an ele- 
ment of the purest power. 

Here, then, the teacher who possesses this logical 
abihty or skill wall have a most important advantage 
over those not thus endowed or quahfied. And it is 
in this direction, that that system of professional 
training which, despising a mere martinet diill in 
formal rules and methods, seeks to develop in the 
teacher the power of acute, vigorous and independ- 
ent thought, at once reveals its just superiority. Let 
no teacher in process of professional training be con- 
tent wdth any other. To do so is simply slavish and 
suicidal. Mastery of form, avails him, only when the 
forms apply. Power to think makes him master of 
the entire position, at the very time of his need, and 
precisely as he needs it. 

A third qualification for the attainment and exercise 
of influence is personal goodness ; not a mere incon- 
siderate or weak goodishness, but that clear, strong, 
positive, rational worthiness whicli is more especially 
the product of pure self-conqu(3st. He is, for the 



298 SCHOOL G0VEItN3IENT. 

use of this moral influence, the most truly and 
effectivelv pure, and good who, whatever may 
have been his original defects of notion or char- 
acter, has hunted them out and dethroned them ; and 
who has, for the sake of his ovvn virtue, installed in 
their stead, traits and principles both admirable and 
sure-founded. Here, it is quite possible for the last 
to become signally the first. Constitutional amia- 
bihty is, of course, lovely ; but acquired worthiness 
is the most mighty, and the most to be revered. 

But, whether it be constitutional or acquired, the 
worthiness must be. Base character may by seK- 
concealment and artifice, attain and wield a potent 
influence. But that influence is uncertain. There is 
always lying under it the dangerous powder-heap, to 
which some unexpected revelation of the hidden de- 
formity may apply the igniting si:)ark and fatally ex- 
plode the whole of the seemingly fair fabric. To 
command a ti-ue and abiding influence, there must be 
that near approach of chai'acter to character; that 
direct contact of thought, feehng, and sympathy, 
which renders no one permanently safe and sure, who 
cannot, in the fuU assurance of conscious rectitude 
say, and with a better principle and purpose than 
did the subtle lago : 

" I ^\^ll wear my heart upon my sleeve 
For daws to peck at." 

In the fourth place, and pre-eminently, the teacher 
must possess tad. This quahty, so often incompre- 
hensible to those who are destitute of it, is roallv no 



species: requisite qualifications. 299 

mystery. Tact is simply good sense skilfully opera- 
tive. Between the two, the difference is that good 
sense is internal ; tact external : good sense is re- 
flective ; tact applicative : good sense is the subject 
matter ; tact is its just delivery. Indeed, the two are 
but necessary parts of a perfect practical duaHty of 
powers. Good sense and tact are the two contiguous 
plates in the one electrical combination, — the one on 
the negative, the other on the positive side of the 
circuit, but both equally necessary to the evolution 
of the required force. Hence, tact is indispensable 
to the attainment and exercise of true and effective 
influence. Tact is the golden groove along which you 
ghde unperceived to the very gate of the human 
heart : tact is the cunning sap by which you j)ress 
your way beneath its stubborn outworks to the inner 
citadel : tact is the master key that commands all its 
complicated locks, and gives you entrance to its secret 
vaults and hiding places. Were every other power 
denied the teacher, tact might stUl avail to win an 
important success. 

The close relation just shown to exist between good 
sense and tact, vnH suggest the fact that much the 
same laws are true of the existence or the acquisition 
of the latter, as prevail in the case of the former. 
The difficulties to be encountered in the work of 
acquiriag it, and the means to be employed in the 
prosecution of that work, are substantially identical 
with those abeady noticed under the head of good 
sense. They need not then be repeated. 

Much the same may be said of the last quahty to 



300 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

be considered under this head; namely, persistence. 
Essential to the highest success in the administration 
of the preceding forms of government, it certainly 
can be none the less so here. Indeed, the attainment 
of important ends through the use of purely moral 
means, or through influence and persuasion, is gen- 
erally a more circuitous, tardy, and complicated op- 
eration, than could be the attainment of the same 
results through the use of mere authority. Its path, 
like 

" That, on which blessing comes and goes, doth follow 
The river's course, the valley's playful windings, 
Curves round the corn-field and the hill of vines, 
Honoring the holy bounds of property ; 
And thus secure, though late, leads to its end." 

But this very circuitousness, this very regard for 
the rights of human feeling and imperfection, and 
this pure reUance upon peaceful, but indirect and 
.slow-paced measures, renders the demand for patient 
persistence the more imperative. 

There is, however, this difference between the per- 
sistency of this last species of government, and that 
of the two former, which it is instructive to notice. 
The steadiness of purpose involved in the exercise of 
either force or authority, is, like all the attributes of 
those two forms of government, more positive and 
outstanding. It stands forth with unconcealed arms 
and unrolled banners of battle, on the very edge of 
the first onset. In pressing the milder plans and 
purposes of influence, it must bo none the less pres- 
ent, but more quiet and undemonstrative. It lies, 



species: requisite qualifications. 301 

rather in abeyance, like a concealed but ready and 
powerful reserve. Its presence, if at once revealed, 
would only betray the whole projected movement to 
the hostile pupil, and would only tend to put him 
upon his guard, and stiffen his resistance. Hence, it 
should be rather unconsciously felt than immediately 
seen. It should rather shine out steadily in the quiet 
progress of the patient effort, than appear 

" Before the cloudy van, 
On the rough edge of battle ere it join." 

One more general quaHfication, belonging equally 
to all the various species of government enumerated, 
remains to be noticed, and v^e have done. This is 
the poiver of retraction, or the capacity to correct 
and atone for the errors wliich may have occurred in 
the teacher's administration of the government of 
the school. It is doubtless true in principle that 
errors should not be committed, especially those of a 
grave or far-reaching character. But inasmuch as 
the teacher is not infalKble, and is, moreover, hedged 
about by difficulties both complicated and constant, 
*' it must needs be that offenses come ;" and, looking 
at the pain and peril incident upon the attempt to 
retrace the false steps taken, we may also add, " but 
woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." He 
will sooner or later learn the truth of the ancient 
sajang : 

" Facilis decensus Averni ; 
Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras. 
Hoc opus, hie labor est." 



302 SCHOOL GOVEKNMENT. 

In case, then, tlie hard necessity of retraction seems 
to be pressed upon the teacher, let him accept the 
issue fairly, and observe the following maxims. First. 
Not every error needs correction. Some may not 
have been observed by the pupils, and others may 
be altogether of minor importance. Here, the at- 
tempt at correction will only reveal errors before un- 
suspected, or wiU unfortunately exaggerate the im- 
portance of those discovered. The evils thus induced 
wiU more than counterbalance the good proposed in 
the attempted retraction. The true course in such 
a case is for the teacher to stand quietly still upon 
his reserved rights, and leave the error to the natural 
correction of his subsequent administration of afFaii'S. 

Secondly. Even where the errors may have been 
observed, or may possess some grave importance, 
the teacher is not to regard himself as scrupulously 
bound to make public amends for every one. One 
of the most pitiable of weaknesses in him who gov- 
erns, is that of ostentatiously engaging in the punc- 
tihous correction of his own short-comings, by per- 
petual declarations and petty apologies. Nothing 
can be more foreign to the evincing of true govern- 
mental capacity ; nothing more destnictive to confi- 
dence in the government, and esteem for it. Its folly 
may be seen in the fact that it is the product of either 
a pitiful timidity in ruling, or as pitiful a conceit of 
superior rectitude. It is as if the teacher should 
confess that he dare not steadily press forward to the 
attainment of the greater objects in view, undaunted 
by temporary failures; or as if he should be con- 



species: requisite qualifications. 303 

stantlj crying out, " Behold the marvel of my unfail- 
ing and fearless conscientiousness." The whole is a 
vice, only inferior to sheer vanity or obsequiousness. 

TMiat is wanted in the teacher as governor, is not 
the correction of every noticeable fault, but the evin- 
cing of complete power and willingness to correct 
them, when, in his higher judgment, that is truly de- 
manded by the general weKare. Evince this power 
and willingness, and the uncorrected errors will not 
only, not materially impair his authority or influence, 
but they will not unfrequently, by their very incor- 
rection, suggest to the pupil the possibility of higher 
capacity and superior reasons, unkno^-n to himseK, 
but determining the teacher's course. The tendency 
of this will naturally be to strengthen the general 
confidence in, not only his ability, but even his rec- 
titude. 

When correction is clearly just and necessary, let 
the retraction be frankly and fearlessly made, but 
without any needless comment or display, and above 
all, without personal reference, elaborate regrets, or 
unmanly whining. Let the teacher show that he still 
stands strong in conscious rectitude, and unimpaired 
in manly self-respect. Let him remember that what 
might be due between man and man, in the coiTection 
of faults, is not to the same extent demanded between 
government and subject. The broader claims, the 
far more difficult resiDonsibihties, and the higher 
necessities of government as involving the welfare of 
the w^hole, are, in some part, an apology for its inci- 
dental failures. The preservation of its authoritative 



304: SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

dignity and power are too vital to the general inter- 
ests of the whole commonwealth, to be subjected to 
the needless humiliation of minute confessions and 
demure contrition. Let, then, enough appear in 
formal retraction to shed a clear and satisfactory 
light upon the subsequent amendment in governing, 
and, for the rest, let this latter correction be the sole 
rehance. The maxim of government in the correction 
of faults must be ; not words without deeds, but deeds 
rather than words. 

The power to institute such wise and successful 
retraction, it will be now seen, is one of rare com- 
bination and great importance. It involves a happy 
and effective blending of aU the more important in- 
tellectual and moral qualifications which have just 
been set forth. Fortunate is he who finds this 
master combination instant in his nature, or solidly 
built up in his acquii*ed endowments. 

In two directions, the foregoing considerations as 
to the quahfication of the teacher, suggest facts de- 
manding a passiQg notice. It will doubtless have 
occurred to some, that of the quahfications demanded, 
there are those that are neither so native to woman, 
nor so easily to be acquired by her ; as, for example, 
those of physical strength, commanding presence and 
authoritative voice, and logical breadth and power. 
It is, however, by no means necessary that she should 
either possess or seek to acquire these, at least in 
their more masculine or manly phase. She possesses, 
to a more eminent degree and excellence than man 



SPECIES : REQUISITE QUALIEICATIONS. 305 

can boast, others that more than counterbalance any 
loss accruing from want of these. In 

" Those graceful acts, 
Those thousands decencies, that daily flow 
From all her words and actions," 

she is possessed of a power for the successful ad- 
ministration of that highest species of supremacy, — 
the supremacy of loving influence, which not unfre- 
quently, in its proper sphere, puts to shame man's 
more stern and positive capabilities, sometimes, even 
conquers them outright. Indeed, in her sharpness 
of perception ; her instantaneous certainty of intuition, 
sometimes amounting to even a prophetic instinct ; 
her facile adaptation ; her winning grace ; her subtle 
tact ; and her pure and noble sympathies, she is, in 
this field of direction and control, without a peer. 
Let her, then, cultivate others so far as she may 
without disloyalty to her sex ; but let her rely rather 
upon these her own pre-eminent and altogether suffi- 
cient endowments. 

In this direction may be seen, at a glance, the 
stupidity of those who either possess or affect a con- 
viction of the superiority in the woman as teacher, 
of the more masculine traits of strength, courage, and 
so-called energy. They either fail to possess, or they 
foolishly ignore the knowledge of the highest, sweetest 
and most effective endowments of the sex. We say 
to such, 

" There are more things in heaven and earth, 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 



306 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Hence, a liundred times greater importance is to 
be attached to the quiet, all pervading and sweetly 
transforming influence of her, who in the school room 
moves on serenely from day to day, in all her pure 
proprieties and loving efforts, unconsciously both 
blessed and blessing, than can be attributed to the 
sturdy vigor and storming energy of those who either 
unthinkingly or unblushingly sacrifice the sweeter and 
more benign elements of their better nature, upon the 
altar of a masculine ambition. 

It may, furthermore, occur to some that, after all 
that may be done by teachers in the way of personal 
and professional culture and acquirements, there will 
still exist unavoidable individual differences in quali- 
fication, which must seriously affect them in their 
administration of the various species of government 
herein set forth ; and which may even preclude the 
possibility of the highest success in either as an ex- 
clusive form. One lesson taught by this is that of a 
necessary eclecticism in the choice of means and 
methods, which has already been touched upon. 

It remains, however, to suggest here, another im- 
portant and concluding principle. There is, doubt- 
less, a purest and best form of government. But as 
all* are not adapted to be controlled by this theoreti- 
cally superior form ; so are all no more adapted to its 
exercise. This superior scheme of government should, 
beyond question, be so far understood and aspired to, 
as win secure its presence in the thought, as an in- 
spiring and informing influence toward the steady 
improvement of the method necessarily chosen. But 



species: requisite qualifications. 307 

it is not imperative, nay, it may be simply a folly to 
aspire to its exclusive use and realization. The 
particular qualifications of some teachers may, not 
only render this an impossibility, but may render an 
attempt in that direction, only a source of constant 
embarrassment and failure in that especial province 
in which, though inferior, a signal success awaits 
them. All attempts, then, at imposing a one best and 
exclusive form of governing upon the teacher, are 
simply absurd and tyi'annous. 

The general law in this direction, has been tersely 
and truly expressed by Pope : 

"For forms of government let fools contest, 
Wliate'er is best administered is best." 

The substance of it is this : some government is better 
than none, and government is as truly relative to the 
capacity of the ruler, as to the condition of the sub- 
ject. The ^vise teacher, then, while carefully availing 
himself of the offered aid of all, will rely chiefly upon 
that species of government for which he intelligently 
discovers himself to be the best adapted. "The 
government of the school," said an able teacher to us 
once, " is summed up, not so much in the measures, 
as in the spirit of the man.'' But that clear and com- 
manding spirit is possible, and can be free and eftect- 
ive, only in that field where he who rules is consciously 
at home. Da^id was mightier with his sling and 
stone than he could have been, girt Tvith all the 
panoply of Saul, and he had both the good sense to 
hnow it and the courage to avow it. Let the teachers 
leam from his example. 



308 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Nor let them learn from it only this one lesson. It 
is instinct with even nobler truth. Beyond his judi- 
cious preference for his own well-approved, though 
unpretending weapons ; beyond his modest, but seK- 
respectful rehance upon his own self-developed pow- 
ers ; beyond his prompt, but unostentatious accep- 
tance of the duty and the trial providentially imposed 
upon him ; beyond that imperturbable coolness and 
calmness which stamped him every inch a man, as 
well as a hero ;— beyond all this, let the true teacher 
discover, and ponder well, that lesson of simple un- 
wavering faith in a divine guidance and support, which 
he, in his conflicts with ignorance and insubordination, 
needs not less than did David in his memorable com- 
bat with the giant of Gath ; and may he, in his time 
of need, both seek and find that guidance and support, 
and through them, come off conqueror indeed. 



3477 



